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hie  Development  of  Naturalism  in  German 
Poetry  from  the  Hainbund  to  Liliencron 


A  thesis  submitted  in  partial  fulfillment  of  the  rerinrem^jntt 

for  the 
Doctor  of  Philosophy  Degree  at  the  Ohio  State  University 


BY 

ERWIN  H.  BOHM 


JUNE,  1917 


The  Development  of  Naturalism  in  German 
Poetry  from  the  Hainbund  to  Liliencron 


A  thesis  submitted  in  partial  fulfillnnent  of  the  requirements 

for  the 
Doctor  of  Philosophy  Degree  at  the  Ohio  State  University 


BY   i 

ERWIN  H.  BOHM 


JUNE,  1917 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 

Introduction 1 

The  eighteenth  century  before  Goethe    ......  3 

Goethe 11 

The  early  nineteenth  century 15 

The  break  with  romanticism 27 

The  silver  age 42 

The  immediate  forerunners  of  naturalism 53 

Conclusion 60 


^^cV--^ 


INTRODUCTION 

In  tracing  the  development  of  naturalism  in  poetry  the  first  question 
to  intrude  into  the  mind  of  the  investigator  will  probably  be:  Is  na- 
turalism in  literature,  and  especially  in  poetry,  something  new,  the 
characteristic  tendency  of  any  particular  age? 

If  naturalism  is  used  as  a  synonym  for  realism,  the  answer  must  be 
"no".  Popular  epics  and  folk-poetry,  close  to  the  soil  and  in  immediate 
touch  with  the  life  and  soul  of  the  people  among  whom  they  had  their 
origin,  most  invariably  show  a  strong  tendency  toward  realism.  The 
description  of  everyday  life  in  Homer  must  have  appeared  realistic  in 
its  day;  the  Odyssey  mentions  realistic  details  that  would  evoke  a  smile 
in  the  average  English  reader  of  today;  we  need  only  remember  the 
dung  heap  before  the  door  of  Odysseus*.  This  realistic  tendency  ap- 
pears especially  in  popular  ballads  and  lyrics. 

/  In  more  complex,  more  refined,  and  more  developed  stages  of  cul- 
ture and  education  this  simple  realism  is  often  lacking.  The  poets  need 
not  go  to  their  immediate  surroundings  for  inspiration;  they  may  turn 
to  the  great  poets  preceding  them.  They  thus  lose  close  contact  with 
their  own  native  soil,  becoming  refined  and  unrealistic.    Their  appeal 

[  no  longer  is  to  the  masses;  only  the  aristocracy  of  the  intellectual  can 

I  appreciate  them.  Since  they  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  earlier  poets,  their 
subject  matter  is  limited  in  scope;  they  tend  to  confine  themselves  to  a 
certain  group  of  phenomena  which  they  consider  typical.  Hence  the 
art  of  this  type  often  becomes  highly  conventional.  It  is  well  repre- 
sented by  the  classical  French  drama,  and  in  German  poetry  by  the 
Anacreontics.  All  portrayal  of  the  individual  and  the  specific  in  life 
has  here  been  abandoned  in  favor  of  the  typical,  the  conventional. 
If  we  compare  the  poetry  of  Germany  with  that  of  England  or  France, 

/  we  shall  see  that  the  former  is  relatively  more  realistic,  more  popular, 
and  closer  to  its  own  native  soil  than  the  latter.  Many  of  the  leading 
English  poets,  Coleridge,  Byron,  Shelley,  Keats,  Tennyson,   Mathew 

*The  frequent  assertion  that  the  early  poetry,  such  as  the  epics  of 
Homer,  is  more  idealistic  than  the  literature  of  a  later  day  is  not  a 
contradiction  of  the  statement  above.  Homer  is  idealistic  in  his  at- 
titude toward  the  miraculous  and  the  heroic.  He  has  undoubtedly 
idealized  the  life  of  his  day  and  passed  over  in  silence  many  of  its 
disagreeable  and  trivial  features,  but  nevertheless  his  strongly  re- 
alistic tendency  is  undeniable. 

1 

4846 1 i 


p  ;    »  *  '•  Z    *  '     A      ••        •••  , 

•••  •  ••*•  .*•  *  .    *•;  ,,;  ,'•*,  '.I 

Arnold'  Rosetti,  Swinburne,  etc.,  are  very  remote  from  their  native 
English  soil,  are  not  readily  intelligible  to  the  man  of  little  education, 
and  not  markedly  realistic.  The  more  realistic  poets,  Wordsworth  and 
Browning,  stand  out  as  exceptions,  while  Burns  really  stands  aside  from 
English  literary  traditions  and  succeeds  only  when  he  leans  wholly  on 
the  traditional  Scotch  folk-poetry.  In  France  some  of  the  leading  poets 
show  strong  realistic  tendencies  at  times,  but  usually  they  appear  much 
less  realistic  and  much  more  exclusive  in  their  appeal  than  the  Ger- 
mans, notwithstanding  such  exceptions  as  B^ranger.  But  in  Germany 
since  1770  we  find  most  of  the  eminent  poets  leaning  more  or  less  strong- 
ly toward  realism;  it  is  the  refined  and  aristocratic  poet,  such  as  Hol- 
derlin  or  Platen,  who  forms  the  exception  here.  The  reasons  for  this 
may  be  more  profitably  discussed  a  little  later. 

j      If  naturalism  were  synonymous  with  realism,  German  poetry  since 
'  1770  would  at  once  be  seen  to  be  more  naturalistic  than  that  of  Eng- 
land or  France.    But  that  naturalism  which  was  the  ruling  force  in  Ger- 
/  man  literature  toward  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  which 
I  j  was  as  characteristic  of  the  lyric  as  it  was  of  the  drama  or  the  novel, 
h  is  more  than  merely  a  high  degree  of  realism.    It  is  something  decidedly 
>  i  distinctive  and  characteristic  of  its  time,  for  it  was  the  result  of  the 
i  I  spirit  of  an  age  which  had  never  been  before:  the  age  of  modern  science. 
,  !  The  scientific  spirit  of  investigation,  ideal  of  the  latter  nineteenth  cen- 
j  tury,  tended  to  a  more  careful  analysis  of  reality  than  was  attained  be- 
f   fore.    As  a  result  we  have  the  tendency  to  make  art  coextensive  with 
\   life.  This  naturally  led  to  the  treatment  of  subjects  hitherto  considered 
as  unfit  for  poetry.    Furthermore,  a  greater  minuteness  in  regard   to 
detail  made  its  appearance  in  poetry,  above  all  in  the  treatment  of  na- 
ture.   These  tendencies  in  turn  led  to  a  greater  freedom  of  expression, 
since  a  small  and  limited  "poetic"  vocabulary  would  be  incapable  of 
becoming  the  vehicle  of  an  art  that  is  to  become  coextensive  with  reality. 

The  scientific  objectivity  had  given  rise  to  a  drier,  more  matter-of- 
''/ fsLct  attitude  toward  life.  The  old  romantic  spirit,  so  characteristic  of 
the  early  nineteenth  century,  had  begun  to  fall  into  disrepute.  The 
growth  of  scepticism  and  materialism,  following  in  the  wake  of  the  de- 
velopment of  natural  science,  meant  the  disintegration  of  many  old 
beliefs  and  ideals.  These  tendencies  all  helped  to  bring  about  the  na- 
turalistic era  in  literature. 

'      The  scientific  spirit  had  thus  fused  with  the  realistic  tendencies  in- 
herent in  German  poetry  to  produce  naturalism.    But  still  other  fac- 

2 


tors  were  to  assist  in  the  moulding  of  naturalism.  One  of  these  was  the 
growing  spirit  of  individualism.  The  classicists  had  emphasized  the 
typical  at  the  expense  of  the  personal.  It  was  relatively  late  when 
poets  felt  themselves  at  liberty  to  introduce  their  own  personality  into 
poetry,  and  to  substitute  specific  experiences  in  place  of  the  general 
themes  of  the  classicists.  Instead  of  simply  singing  about  wine  and  love 
and  displaying  their  devotion  to  fictitious  sweethearts  with  Greek  names, 
as  had  been  customary  among  the  Anacreontics,  the  modern  poets  be- 
gan to  reveal  their  actual  inner  self.  A  greater  variety  of  experiences 
was  thus  introduced  into  the  lyric.  The  growth  of  individualism  in 
literature  becomes  very  apparent  when  we  turn  from  Corneille  or  Mo- 
liere,  both  of  whom  always  portrayed  the  typical,  to  Rousseau.  In  the 
lyric  the  change  appears  very  evident  if  we  compare  the  highly  indi- 
vidualistic poetry  of  Heine  with  that  of  the  Anacreontics. 

The  growth  of  democracy  in  the  course  of  the  18th  century  also  left 
its  trace  upon  literature,  and  in  the  19th  century  socialism  began  to 
play  an  increasingly  prominent  part  in  the  life  and  thought  of  the 
world.  The  peasants  and  the  middle  class  were  well  in  the  lyrics  and 
epics  of  the  latter  eighteenth  century,  and  in  the  nineteenth  century 
the  proletarians  and  the  outcasts  absorbed  a  growing  portion  of  the 
poet's  attention.  The  interest  for  the  unfortunate  members  of  society 
assumes  the  form  of  compassion,  the  ability  to  see  the  wrongs  inflicted 
upon  certain  classes  and  the  consequent  desire  to  side  with  the  lower 
classes  against  their  oppressors. 

It  is  my  aim  to  trace  the  development  of  these  tendencies,  of  realism, 
of  the  scientific  spirit,  of  individualism,  of  democracy,  and  of  socialism, 
in  German  poetry,  and  to  show  how  the  various  factors  have  helped  to 
bring  about  naturalism.  The  appearance  of  Liliencron's  "Adjutanten- 
ritte"  (1884)  is  commonly  accepted  as  marking  the  beginning  of  a  new 
era,  that  of  naturalism.  Whether  this  conception  is  correct  or  not  can 
be  decided  later;  at  any  rate,  I  shall  abide  by  the  popular  conception 
that  the  year  1884  stands  at  the  threshold  of  a  new  period,  and  shall  not 
attempt  to  investigate  the  poems  of  any  author  whose  first  volume  of 
poetry  appeared  later  than  1884. 

THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY  BEFORE  GOETHE 

The  reason  for  the  more  pronounced  leaning  toward  realism  in  Ger- 
man poetry  as  compared  with  that  of  England  and  France  is  a  twofold 
one:  1,  the  Renaissance,  giving  rise  to  a  more  conventional  and  un- 

3 


popular  art,  came  to  Germany  rather  late,  and  failed  to  produce  a 
single  great  poet;  2,  the  German  lyric  has  received  much  of  its  inspira- 
tion from  the  folk-song,  the  popular  art  of  the  masses.  The  second  of 
these  two  factors  is  the  natural  result  of  the  first,  for  it  was  the  desire 
to  break  with  the  artificial  and  feeble  imitators  of  the  classics  that 
prompted  the  Germans  to  turn  to  the  folk-song. 

The  poetry  of  the  Renaissance  is  represented  by  the  first  and  second 
Silesian  schools,  and  later  a  similar  tendency  appeared  among  the  An- 
acreontics. The  poetry  of  this  type  thus  remained  the  ruling  force  in 
German  literature  throughout  the  seventeenth  century  and  also  a  very 
large  part  of  the  eighteenth  century.  It  was  not  only  inspired  by  the 
classics,  but  to  a  great  extent  a  mere  imitation  of  the  latter.  The  list 
of  subjects  open  to  poetic  treatment  was  decidedly  limited;  the  lang- 
uage was  conventional.  The  profuse  employment  of  mythological  refer- 
ences made  this  poetry  almost  unintelligible  to  the  masses.  The  sen- 
timents expressed  were  impersonal;  only  too  frequently  there  was  a 
wide  breach  between  the  sentiment  of  a  poem  and  the  ideas  and  ideals 
held  by  its  author  in  private  life.  These  are  all  facts  so  well  known  to 
anyone  acquainted  with  German  literature  that  illustrations  would  be 
quite  superfluous. 

While  this  inferior  poetic  art  was  ruling  Germany  the  folk-song  was 
ignored  and  despised  by  men  of  letters  and  had  already  begun  to  fall 
into  oblivion.  When  Percy's  "Reliques  of  Ancient  English  Poetry"  and 
MacPherson's  (supposedly  original)  "Ossian"  had  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  German  readers  many  of  the  leading  intellects  began  to  realize 
the  artificiality  of  German  poetry.  The  conviction  began  to  spread,  in 
spite  of  opposition,  that  the  songs  of  primitive  people  constituted  poe- 
try at  its  best,  and  the  question  arose:  "Have  the  Germans  no  folk- 
poetry?" 

The  honor  of  having  been  the  chief  champion  of  folk-poetry  in  the 
Germany  of  the  eighteenth  century  belongs  to  Herder.  But  while  Her- 
der defended  folk-poetry  in  his  prose  writings'  and  collected  folk-songs^, 
his  own  original  poems  can  not  be  said  to  show  the  folk-song  influence 
to  any  marked  extent.  It  is  probably  true,  furthermore,  that  the  re- 
turn to  the  realism  of  the  folk-song  would  have  come  without  Herder 
through  the  influence  of  Percy,  Ossian,  and  Homer. 

The  movement  toward  popular  poetry  could  not  fail  to  receive  con- 
siderable support  from  the  back-to-nature  movement,  which,  championed 

•See  Herder's  "Von  deutscher  Art  und  Kunst  I";  2Herder's  "Stimmen 
der  Volker  in  Liedern". 

4 


by  Rousseau,  had  such  far-reaching  influence  on  the  minds  of  the  latter 
eighteenth  century.  Never  before  had  the  poets  been  so  strongly  at- 
tracted to  rural  life.  The  peasants,  hitherto  despised,  now  became  the 
centre  of  interest  quite  as  much  as  the  slums  and  proletarians  100  years 
later. 

It  is  among  the  poets  of  the  "Hain"  where  this  spirit  is  most  in  evi- 
dence. The  very  circumstances  under  which  this  alliance  was  founded 
would  symbolize  a  return  to  nature'.  J.  H.  Voss,  the  head  of  this  alli- 
ance, was  also  the  foremost  realist  among  its  members.  The  fact  that 
this  poet's  own  grand-parents  were  peasants  and  in  bondage  would 
naturally  predispose  him  toward  the  portrayal  of  rural  and  peasant 
life.  The  simplicity  and  realism  of  description  which  characterize  his 
works  are  probably  traceable  in  part  to  the  influence  of  Homer,  whom 
Voss  translated.  The  realism  of  Voss's  idyls  forms  a  glaring  contrast 
to  the  somewhat  insipid  idealism  of  the  contemporary  Salomon  Gessner. 
'  A  close  analysis  of  Voss's  "Luise"^  will  give  us  an  idea  of  the  poet's 
realism.  The  first  idyl  very  simply  describes  a  picnic  in  the  forest.  It 
mentions  the  poultry  in  the  back  yard^,  the  dog  growling  at  the  cat  and 
trying  to  catch  flies'^,  and  even  less  agreeable  details,  such  as  the  gnats^, 
the  coughing  and  spitting  of  the  old  man^,  and  the  lawn  is  described  as 
being  too  damp  to  sit  upon  for  the  person  susceptible  to  coughing  and 
sneezing^. 

'  The  most  trivial  details  are  introduced  into  "Luise":  Susanna,  the 
maid,  catches  flies  and  mice,  and  airs  the  alcove^;  we  read:  "Ihr  lauft 
ja  so  rasch  wie  die  Hiihnlein  iiber  den  Hof,  wenn  die  Magd  an  der 
Haustiir  Putter  umherstreut"^;  and  again:  "Hat  der  hassliche  Kater 
wieder  gemaut?  Bin  Hiihnlein  beim  Eierlegen  gekakelt?  Oder  Susan- 
na zu  laut  mit  dem  Waffeleisen  geklappert?"io.  The  closet  containing 
the  collars  and  shirts  is  described  in  the  second  idyl  of  "Luise"".  The 
doctor's  advice  is  also  brought  ini2. 

While  Voss  is  thus  breaking  away  from  the  conventional  list  of  poetic 
subjects,  he  is  also  introducing  a  minuteness  of  treatment  which  is  un- 
surpassed by  any  poet  before  Annette  von  Droste-Hulshoff.  Let  us  pro- 
ceed with  our  analysis.  Sounds  are  introduced  to  a  much  greater  ex- 
tent than  hitherto  in  poetry:  the  chirping  of  the  crickets'^,  the  humming 
of  the  beesi4,  the  buzzing  of  the  flies'^,  the  buzzing  of  the  beetle'^,  the 

'Witkop's  "Die  neuere  deutsche  Lyrik",  Leipsic  and  Berlin,  1910,  v.  I, 
pp.  219  and  220.  ^ed.  used  for  Voss:  "Hempel's  Klassiker-Ausgaben", 
Berlin  n.d.  "Luise"  in  v.  I.  3p.  i,  11.13.  4p.  1^  14.15.  sp.  2,  4.  6p.  19, 
23,  and  26.  7p.  25,  23,  and  26.  »p.  4,  18-20;  9p.  h,  15.17.  lOp.  12, 
3-5.  lip.  34,  18,  and  35,  1-3.  i2p.  35,  6-7.  i3p.  5,  21.  i4p.  1,  2. 
i5p.  1,  16.     i6p.  30,  16. 

5 


hooting  of  the  owl',  and  the  ticking  of  the  clock^.  The  introduction  of 
odors  (not  too  common  in  poetry)  is  especially  remarkable:  ''Dass  Geiss- 
blatt  duftet  des  Abends  viel  zu  streng',  und  zumal  mit  der  Lilien  und 
der  Reseda  Duft  vermischt"^.  Other  odors  mentioned  are  that  of  the 
strawberry*,  and  that  of  the  grass^. 

The  detailed  knowledge  of  plant  and  animal  life  on  the  part  of  Voss 
appears  to  be  considerable.  Among  birds,  for  instance,  he  mentions  the 
mire-drum,  lapwing,  cuckoo,  black-bird,  finch,  bunting,  quail,  ring-dove, 
and  roller^.  In  regard  to  plants  the  poet  is  also  highly  specific  in  his 
references,  mentioning,  for  instance,  the  clay-weed^,  and  the  tendril*. 

Landscapes  are  also  described  in  great  detaiP. 

This  enumeration  of  details  regarding  Voss's  treatment  of  nature  is 
undoubtedly  very  incomplete,  but  it  will  show  what  a  tremendous  dif- 
ference in  regard  to  care  for  detail  exists  between  the  nature  treatment 
of  Voss  and  that  of  earlier  poets,  Brockes  for  example. 

Like  Homer,  Voss  also  lays  great  stress  upon  the  useful  in  nature: 
"links  im  Tal,  wo  der  Aest'  ein  unendlicher  Abfall  lag  in  Laub  und 
Gestrauch,  dem  Hiittener  Feurung  des  Winters" 'o. 

We  may  also  mention  at  this  point  the  great  care  for  detail  which 
Voss  employs  in  describing  a  repast^.  In  "Der  Abendschmauss",  an- 
other idyl  of  Voss,  the  description  of  table  decorations  and  culinary 
things  takes  up  several  pages' 2.  The  last  reference  is  probably  to  one  of 
the  most  detailed  and  realistic  descriptions  of  a  meal  in  poetry.  Even 
the  lackeys  waiting  for  their  tips  are  not  overlooked. 

Voss  was  also  an  innovator  in  as  much  as  he  treated  of  real  peasants 
in  his  idyls,  and  not  of  the  conventional  shepherds  and  shepherdesses 
that  were  usually  associated  with  rural  life  in  literature  previously.  The 
peasants  in  "Die  Heumad"  or  "Die  Bleicherin",  etc.,  are  evidently  por- 
trayed from  life.  In  "Der  siebzigste  Geburtstag"  he  pictures  the  life 
of  the  country  schoolmaster  in  a  realistic  manner,  and  in  "Luise"  that 
of  the  country  parson  is  similarly  described.  Even  the  Low  German  dia- 
lect of  the  common  people  is  employed  to  strengthen  the  illusion  of  re- 
ality, as  in  "De  Winterawend"  and  "De  Geldhapers". 
/  A  further  characteristic  of  Voss  is  his  marked  trend  toward  socialism. 
/"Die  Freigelassenen"  is  an  accusation  of  the  hard  heartedness  and  in- 
justice of  the  landlord  toward  the  peasants.  In  "Die  Leibeigenen"  the 
poet  completely  sides  with  the  peasants  against  the  landlord  "der  mit 

ip.  30,  25.  2p.  30,  25.  3p.  2,  2-4.  4p.  7,  g.  5p,  30,  12.  6p.  23,  16-19. 
7p.  8,  10.  8p.  6,  5.  9p.  6,  10-21.  lOp.  13,  10-11.  np.  4,  2-10,  and 
p.  21,  11-p.  22,  1.  i20ther  idyls  (except  "Luise")  in  part  II  of  ed.  ref. 
top.  76,  22-p.  81,  25. 

6 


Diensten  des  Rechts  und  der  Willkiihr  uns  wie  die  Pferde  abqualet  und 
kaum  wie  die  Pferde  bekostigf'i. 

A  slight  tendency  toward  satire  is  occasionally  noticeable  in  Voss: 
"zwolf  dickbauchige  Herren  und  zwolf  breithiiftige  Damen  sassen  ver- 
teilt  in  dem  Saale  mit  gierigen  Augen  am  Spieltisch"^. 

Leaving  the  idyls  of  Voss  and  turning  to  his  shorter  poems,  we  may 
find  some  of  this  satire  in  "Friihlingslied  eines  gnadigen  Frauleins"^.  It 
satirizes  the  simple  life  mania  of  the  latter  18th  century.  The  young 
lady  in  the  poem  who  does  not  exactly  approve  of  the  simple  life,  uses 
expressions  like  "desennuyiret"  and  "krepiret";  since  foreign  words  of 
this  type  are  otherwise  uncommon  in  Voss,  we  may  conclude  that  his 
purpose  in  introducing  them  here  was  simply  to  reproduce  reality.  The 
young  lady  in  question  despises  the  peasants  and  their  festivals,  when 
"Kerls  mit  unfrisiertem  Haar,  und  Menschern  ohne  Taille"  are  in  evi- 
dence; "Da  stinkt  es  von  Swizenttabak",  she  adds.  But  she  rejoices  at 
seeing  the  smoke  of  the  big  city:  "Ach,  seht  doch,  in  der  blauen  Fern; 
wie  schon  der  Ranch  sich  hebet". 

Some  of  the  shorter  poems  of  Voss  contain  realistic  passages  of  in- 
tense vividness.  In  "Herbstgang"^  we  read:  "dampfend  zieht  das  Gaul- 
gespann".  "Der  Winterschmauss''^  shows  that  the  poet  is  already  em- 
ploying modern  geographical  knowledge:  "Schneidender  Ostorkan  aus 
Sibirien  saust  am  Doppelfenster".  The  illusion  of  reality  is  complete 
when  he  writes:  "Bepackt  mit  Feurung  knarrt  im  Frost  die  Lastfuhr", 
or  "dem  Barenturban  dicken  Ranch  entatmend".  The  reaper  at  his 
work  appears  in  "Heureigen"^,  and  we  are  told  that  he  must  stop  to 
wipe  the  perspiration  from  his  face.  "Drescherlied"^  informs  the  reader 
about  the  process  of  thrashing;  the  horses  and  cows  are  heard  in  the 
barn,  and  sparrows,  crows,  and  chickens  come  to  pick  up  what  they 
can  get.  The  same  concrete  description  of  everyday  occurrences  is 
found  in  "Die  Kartoffelernte"8.  It  might  be  of  interest  to  note  that 
Voss's  first  poem  is  said  to  have  been  written  in  praise  of  the  cat^. 
/  While  Voss  was  the  chief  realist  of  his  day,  realism  was  also  in  evidence 
in  the  poems  of  some  of  his  contemporaries,  although  to  a  less  degree. 
The  simple  folks  who  live  near  the  soil  now  come  into  their  own.  To 
be  sure,  Haller  and  Ewald  von  Kleist  had  praised  the  life  of  the  peas- 
ants in  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  but  they  regarded  the 
life  of  the  peasants  as  spectators,  their  exaltation  of  rural  life  being 
theoretical  and  their  language  conventional.  But  now  the  poets  make 
an  attempt  to  be  more  simple  in  their  mode  of  expression,  to  place  them- 

ip.  15,  6-7.  2p.  76^  13-14.  3The  shorter  poems  of  Voss  are  in  part  III 
of  ed.  ref.  to,  p.  16.  *p.  58.  5"Bibliothek  der  deutschen  Klassiker", 
Hildburghausen  1861,  v.  VIII,  p.  393.  ^p.  27.  7p.  40.  8"Bibliothek 
der  deutschen  Klassiker",  v.  VIII,  p.  379.     9p.  107. 

7 


selves  in  the  position  of  peasants,  and  to  see  life  as  the  latter  would  see 
it.  They  try  to  imitate  the  folk-song,  and  their  poetry  becomes  more 
specific  and  concrete.  It  is  also  to  be  observed  that  references  to  myth- 
ology become  fewer  as  the  influence  of  popular  poetry  increases. 

To  illustrate  the  above  I  shall  cite  only  a  few  characteristic  examples. 
Holty,  also  a  member  of  the  "Hain",  has  given  us  a  realistic  picture  in 
"Das  Feuer  im  Walde"'.  It  is  the  story  of  two  boys  sitting  around  a 
bonfire  in  the  forest  and  their  conversation  with  a  lame  veteran  who 
lost  his  leg  in  the  battle  of  Kunersdorf  told  in  language  almost  ap- 
proaching prose  in  its  simplicity.  With  considerable  sense  of  realism 
the  poet  tells  us  how  the  boys  build  their  fire  while  the  horses  graze  in 
the  vicinity,  the  story  of  the  soldier,  and  how  the  boys  share  their  lunch 
of  bread  and  cheese  with  their  new  acquaintance.  Holty 's  "Friihling- 
lied"2  also  shows  the  concrete,  realistic  sense  and  the  simplicity  of  sen' 
timent  and  expression  which  began  to  make  their  appearance  in  Ger- 
man poetry.  The  tendency  to  get  away  from  the  old  idyllic  treatment 
of  rural  life,  and  to  narrate  occurrences  in  the  life  of  the  reapers  such  as 
reality  affords,  appears  in  "Christel  und  Hannchen"^. 

Among  the  other  poets  associated  with  the  "Hain",  J.  P.  Miller  has 
frequently  put  poems  into  the  mouth  of  peasants,  as  "Beim  Erntesch- 
maus"'*,  "Der  verliebte  Bauer"5^  and  "Lied  der  Bauren  beim  Regen"^. 

Mathias  Claudius  is  usually  regarded  as  one  of  the  chief  representa- 
tives of  a  more  simple  and  popular  art  in  the  eighteenth  century,  as  well 
as  of  the  back  to  nature  movement.  This  is  partly  due  to  his  marrying 
a  peasant  girl  and  living  a  patriarchal  life^.  He  makes  an  effort  to  couch 
his  poetic  sentiments  in  very  simple  language,  and  usually  succeeds,  al- 
though it  has  been  pointed  out  that  his  desire  to  appear  simple  is  oc- 
casionally artificial  and  results  in  the  exact  opposite,  as  in  "Morgen- 
lied  eines  Bauermannes"8,  stanzas  6  and  7.  The  language  of  Claudius, 
in  spite  of  its  simplicity,  does  not  give  us  the  illusion  of  reality,  because 
there  is  no  attempt  made  to  imitate  the  speech  of  the  peasant. 

"Abendlied  eines  Bauermannes"^  is  a  praise  of  the  simple  life  by  a 
peasant.  The  perspiration  on  the  peasant's  forehead  is  again  men- 
tioned. "Der  gliickliche  Bauer" lo  and  "Frau  Rebecca  mit  den  Kin- 
dern"ii  again  show  us  Claudius's  interest  in  rural  life. 

In  regard  to  specific  realistic  detail  Claudius  is  not  another  Voss,  but 

lEd.  used  for  Holty:  Kurschner's  "Deutsche  National-Li teratur",  Berlin 
and  Stuttgart,  n.d.  ref.  to,  p.  17.  2p.  89.  3p.  19,  4^d,  used  for  Miller: 
Kurschner's  "Deutsche  National-Literatur",  Berlin  and  Stuttagrt,  n.d. 
ref.  to  p.  164.  ^p.  214.  ^p.  318.  ''See  Witkop's  "Die  neuere  deutsche 
Lyrik",  Leipsic  and  Berlin,  1910,  v.  I,  pp.  194-195.  sEd.  used  for 
Claudius:  Kurschner's  "Deutsche  National-Literatur",  ref.  to  p.  268, 
commented  on  in  Witkop,  v.  I,  p.  199.     9p.  269.     lOp,  307.     np.  309. 

8 


his  simplicity  is  far  remote  from  the  Anacreontic  or  the  classic  spirit. 
The  summit  of  triviality  is  reached  in  "Motetto,  als  der  erste  Zahn 
durch  war"i. 

Gottfried  August  Burger  claimed  that  his  highest  aim  was  to  be  a 
folk-poet:  "Mit  Wort  und  Tat  strebe  ich  zu  zeigen,  was  wahre  leben- 
dige  Volkspoesie  sei"2.  In  theory  he  was  also  a  pronounced  realist: 
"Du  kannst  die  Greuel  einer  Schlacht,  eines  Lazaretts  darstellen,  dass 
deine  Darstellung  immer  und  ewig  fiir  echte  Poesie  gelten  muss"3;  "Das 
Nachbild  der  Kunst  muss  wenn  alles  ist  wie  es  sein  soil  und  kann,  die 
namlichen  Eindriicke  machen,  wie  das  Vorbild  der  Natur"*. 

In  practice  Burger  was  never  as  great  a  realist  as  might  be  expected 
from  these  quotations,  although  many  of  his  poems  are  distinguished  by 
simplicity  of  thought  and  expression:  "Spinncrlied"5,  "Mollys  Wert"6, 
"Des  armen  Suschens  Traum"^.  The  last  named  poem  mentions  the 
dream  book.  That  Burger  regarded  nature  with  the  eye  of  a  realist  is 
demonstrated  by  his  careful  distinction  between  different  plants  in  "Un- 
treue  iiber  alles"8,  where  the  cornflower,  the  hawthorn,  and  the  black- 
thorn are  mentioned.  "Der  Hund  aus  der  Pfennigschenke"^  narrates  a 
realistic  episode. 

The  personal  note  is  rather  strong  in  Burger:  "Bei  dem  Grabe  meines 
guten  Grossvaters  Jakob  Philip  Bauers"io. 

The  dissatisfaction  with  tyranny,  pointing  toward  modern  socialism, 
appears  in  "Der  Bauer" ii. 

Incidentally  it  might  be  pointed  out  that  there  are  some  resemblances 
between  Burger  and  the  later  Heine.  Burger  occasionally  introduces 
slang  into  his  poems,  as  "das  Weibsen"i2^  "Schnabel"  and  "puppert"i3. 

Schubart  is  perhaps  a  more  pronounced  realist  than  Burger.  He  also 
has  put  simple  songs  into  the  mouth  of  simple  folk.  "Fischerlied"'*, 
"Winterlied  eines  schwabischen  Bauerjungen"i5^  "Lisels  Brautlied"i6^ 
"Schwabisches  Bauernlied"!''^  "Der  Bauer  im  Winter"i8.  Without  mak- 
ing use  of  dialect,  Schubart  introduces  dialectical  expressions  into  these 
poems  which  make  them  appear  more  realistic,  as  "Madels,  Lisel  is 
'ne  Braut,  's  Herzle,  mein  Pfeifle  Tobak",  etc. 

"Der  Provisor"i9  is  the  song  of  the  petty  school  assistant,  mice  and 
rats   are   mentioned  in   "Der  Schneider" 20^  a  humorous  poem.     "Das 

Jp.  268.  ^^d.  used  for  Burger:  Kiirschner's  "Deutsche  National-Lit- 
eratur",  Berlin  and  Stuttgart,  n.d.  ref.  to,  p.  XLVI.  3p,  XLVIII. 
4p.  XLVIII.  5p.  74.  6p.  93.  7p.  169.  8p.  238.  ^p.  280.  lOp.  53. 
lip.  65.  i2p.  159.  i3p.  160.  i4Hd.  used  for  Schubart:  Kiirschner's 
"Deutsche  National-Literatur",  Berlin  and  Stuttgart,  n.d.  ref.  to  p.  351. 
i5p.  408.     i6p.  409.     i7p.  410.     i8p.  412.     i9p.  3II.     20p.  310. 

9 


schwangere  Madchen"!  is  also  realistic,  although  it  must  not  be  over- 
looked that  if  has  a  rather  forced  happy  ending. 

A  number  of  Schubart's  poems  have  reference  to  contemporary  his- 
torical events:  "Freiheitslied  eines  Kolonisten"^  was  prompted  by  the 
American  revolutionary  war,  while  "Kaplied"^  and  "Fiir  den  Trupp"* 
bring  us  face  to  face  with  occurrences  in  South  Africa. 

"Der  Arme"5  displays  a  deep  realization  of  the  misery  and  suffering 
in  the  world.  Similar  poems  by  Schubart  are  "Der  Bettelsoldat"^  and 
"Der  Tod  eines  Armen"^,  The  latter  poem  especially  will  show  that 
Schubart's  attitude  is  that  of  a  Christian  rather  than  that  of  modern 
social  democracy. 

Some  of  this  early  realism  of  the  eighteenth  century  may  be  found  in 
Lenz  also,  especially  in  "Die  Liebe  auf  dem  Lande"8,  where  we  find 
such  passages  as:  "An  ihrem  Brots'chrank  an  der  Wand  er  immer,  im- 
mer  vor  ihr  stand",  or  "Friih  eh'  er  in  die  Kirche  ging  er  sehr  eraschert 
zu  ihr  trat  und  sie  um  ein  Glas  Wasser  bat".  "Die  Geschichte  auf  der 
Aar"9  is  based  on  a  real  occurrence;  the  cough  of  the  old  woman  is 
mentioned. 

The  realistic  wave  that  passed  over  German  literature  in  the  latter 
eighteenth  century  was  largely  prompted,  as  mentioned  before,  by  Rous- 
seau and  his  back  to  nature  movement,  as  well  as  by  Percy,  and  Os- 
sian  and  the  subsequent  growth  of  interest  in  the  folk-song.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  the  folk-song  was  largely  the  lyric  of  peasants,  hunt- 
ers, wandering  apprentices,  and  other  people  who  were  close  to  nature. 
Probably  Homer  w^ith  his  descriptions  of  the  (largely  rural)  life  of  his 
day  had  also  given  some  impetus  to  the  new  search  for  reality.  This 
explains  the  predominatingly  rural  character  of  eighteenth  century  re- 
alism. Although  socialistic  tendencies  appear  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, modern  socialism  had  not  made  its  appearance  and  hence  the 
poet's  interest  in  the  slums  and  sweatshops  of  the  large  cities  had  not 
been  awakened. 

The  result  is,  that  while  eighteenth  century  socialism  is  complete  as 
far  as  rural  life  is  concerned,  urban  life  is  scarcely  taken  into  consider- 
ation. Nor  do  we  find  some  of  the  most  disagreeable  features  of  rural 
life  touched  by  these  poets;  e.g.,  there  is  no  reference  to  degeneracy  in 
the  country  as  it  is  so  powerfully  reproduced  in  Hauptmann's  "Before 

ip.  353.  2p.  349,  3p.  430.  4p.  432.  5p.  404.  6p.  395.  7p.  337.  s^d. 
used  for  Lenz:  Kiirschner's  "Deutsche  National-Literatur",  Berlin  and 
Stuttgart,  n.  d.  ref.  to  p.  231.     ^p.  262. 

10 


Dawn".  The  modern  scientific  spirit  with  its  interest  in  pathology  was 
still  quite  unknown  to  the  eighteenth  century  as  a  whole. 
/  The  detailed  analysis  on  the  part  of  some  of  these  poets,  e.g.,  the 
/  analysis  of  nature  in  Voss  is  quite  remote  from  the  stereotype  and  con- 
ventional manner  of  the  Renaissance  poets.  Nevertheless  the  old  pref- 
erence for  the  typical  rather  than  the  specific  had  not  been  entirely 
overcome.  Mathias  Claudius,  especially,  tends  to  portray  the  typical 
(and  idealized)  peasant;  he  does  not  narrate  special  or  specific  occur- 
rences that  might  have  occurred  in  the  life  of  some  particular  peasant. 
The  absence  of  the  personal  note  in  these  poets  is  also  quite  conspic- 
uous; rarely,  if  ever,  do  they  bring  us  face  to  face  with  actual  occur- 
rences in  their  own  life.  The  personal  and  specific  note,  above  all  other 
things,  distinguishes  Goethe  from  the  poets  of  the  "Hain"  and  the 
Storm  and  Stress. 

GOETHE 

It  is  not  my  aim  to  give  an  exhaustive  account  of  Goethe's  attitude 
toward  realism.  Such  an  undertaking  would  necessitate  the  investiga- 
tion of  Goethe's  dramas  and  prose  as  well  as  of  his  verse,  and  would  in- 
deed require  a  dissertation  for  itself.  On  the  other  hand  Goethe's  im- 
portance in  German  literature  is  so  great  that  something  ought  to  be 
said  about  his  part  in  the  evolution  of  German  naturalism. 
/  Goethe  repeatedly  expressed  himself  in  favor  of  a  realistic  art  that 
/should  be  more  specific  and  all-inclusive  in  regard  to  subject  matter. 
/  Among  many  others  to  this  effect  we  might  cite  his  statement  to  Ecker- 
mann:  "Die  Wirklichkeit  muss  die  Veranlassung  und  den  Stoff  dazu 
(zu  Gedichten)  hergeben.  Allgemein  und  poetisch  wird  ein  spezieller 
Fall  eben  dadurch,  dass  ihn  der  Dichter  behandelf'i.  Speaking  of  a 
plan  for  a  popular  lyrical  anthology  he  writes:  "Kein  Stoff  ware  aus- 
zuschliessen"2.  In  his  literary  criticisms  he  always  approved  of  a  pop- 
ular and  Realistic  art,  as  in  his  criticisms  of  Voss^,  Hebel*,  Griibel^, 
"Des  Knaben  Wunderhorn"6,  "Der  Geburtstag"^. 

And  yet  Goethe  does  not  seem  to  have  been  in  complete  harmony  with 
the  rural  realism  of  the  eighteenth  century  when  carried  to  extremes. 
"Musen  und  Grazien  in  der  Mark"8  is  sarcastically  directed  against  the 
latter  tendency.    Here  we  read:  "Wir  sind  bieder  und  natiirlich,  und 


/ 


iGoethe's  "Gesprache",  Leipsic,  1889,  v.  IV,  p.  266.  ^M.  used  for 
Goethe  unless  otherwise  stated:  Jubilaums-Ausgabe,  Berlin  and  Stutt- 
gart, n.d.  V.  I  (unless  otherwise  stated)  ref.  to  v.  XXXVII,  p.  5. 
3Criticisms  in  v.  XXXVI,  ref.  to  p.  222.  ^p.  236.  5p.  152  and  p.  244. 
6p.  247.     7p.  271.     8p.  94. 

U 


das  ist  genug  getan".  The  dung  (Mist),  muddy  roads,  dry  bread,  and 
beer  of  the  village  tavern,  as  well  as  the  clucking  hen  are  mentioned. 
/  Let  us  now  turn  to  the  examination  of  Goethe's  lyrics  at  first  hand. 
'  At  first  glance  the  poems  of  Goethe  appear  to  group  themselves  under 
two  headings:  the  more  conventional,  traditional,  and  aristocratic  on 
the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  those  written  in  a  more  popular  and 
democratic  vein.  The  latter  generally  tend  to  follow  the  spirit  of  the 
folk-song.  The  first  group  would  include  the  poems  that  still  follow  the 
traditions  of  the  Anacreontics  and  other  early  eighteenth  century  poets, 
as,  for  example,  "Mit  einem  gemalten  Band"',  "Die  schone  Nacht"2, 
"Am  Flusse"3,  etc.  The  poems  of  Goethe's  classical  period,  such  as  the 
Roman  Elegies,  would  also  stand  close  to  this  group. 

A  radically  different  spirit  appears  in  poems  like  "Christel"'*,  "Der 
GoldschmiedsgeseH"5,  and  "Schaffcrs  Klagelied"^.  The  last  named 
poem,  especially  is  written  in  the  spirit  of  the  folk-song.  "Soldatenlied 
zu  Wallensteins  Lager" ^  and  "Freibeuter''^  may  also  be  added  to  the 
poems  showing  folk-song  influence  to  a  marked  degree. 

The  folk-song  and  its  inherently  realistic  spirit  always  attracted 
Goethe  from  the  Strassburg  period  to  old  age.  Even  the  trip  to  Italy 
and  the  classic  period  were  unable  to  exercise  a  lasting  influence  to 
the  contrary.  As  Helen  of  Troy  had  but  a  temporary  influence  on 
Faust,  so  the  influence  of  classical  antiquity  upon  Goethe  was  only  tem- 
porary. In  the  "Zahme  Xenien"  we  find:  "Wir  sind  vielleicht  zu  antik 
gewesen;  Nun  wollen  wir  es  moderncr  lesen"^.  Many  of  the  poems  cited, 
such  as  "Der  Goldschmiedsgesell",  "Schafers  Klagelied",  and  "Frei- 
beuter",  were  written  after  1800. 

Nevertheless,  folk-song  influence  never  gained  the  upper  hand  over 
Goethe  as  it  did  over  some  of  the  later  romantics  (Eichendorff) :  "Goethe 
nahm  auch  diese  Anregung  (des  Volksliedes)  auf,  nicht  indem  er  sich  ihr 
unterordnete,  wie  spater  die  Lyriker  der  Romantik,  sondern  indem  er  sie 
sich  einordnete,  sie  der  ruhlosen  Fiille  seiner  neuen  Bildungselemente 
verschmolz"io. 

From  the  poems  referred  to  above,  as  well  as  from  "Schweizerlied"", 
it  will  be  seen  that  Goethe  has  avoided  that  tendency  which  he  criti- 
cised in  Voss:  "Seine  Gedichte — stellen  zwar  mehr  die  Reflexion  eines 
Dritten  als  das  Geflihl  der  Gemeine  selbst  dar"i2. 

ip.  48.  2p.  29.  3p.  40.  4p.  13.  5p.  23.  6p.  55.  ^v.  II,  p.  227.  ^v.  II, 
p.  226.  9v.  IV,  p.  42.  loWitkop's  "Dieneuere  deutsche  Lyrik",  Leipsic 
and  Berlin,  1910,  v.  I,  p.  240.     np.  98.     i2p.  y.  XXXVI,  p.  225. 

12 


/  Sincerity,  individuality,  and  interest  in  special  occurrences  are  the 
outstanding  qualities  that  distinguish  Goethe  from  the  mass  of  his  pre- 
cursors in  Germany.  Goethe  finds  his  sources  in  his  own  individual  ex- 
periences or  in  occurrences  in  the  world  about  him.  Goethe  himself 
states  that  individual  experiences  furnish  the  themes  for  his  songs  in 
"An  die  Giinstigen"'. 

The  tone  of  realistic  truthfulness  appears  especially  in  some  of  the 
numerous  love-lyrics  of  Goethe:  in  the  youthful  and  buoyant  "Chris- 
tel",  where  we  find  the  effects  of  a  kiss  described  thus,  "Das  lauft  mir 
durch  das  Riickenmark  bis  in  die  grosse  Zeli!",  in  "Rettung"^,  and 
"Selbstbetrug"^.  Other  poems  are  perhaps  less  realistic  in  detail,  but 
even  more  realistic  in  sincerity  of  tone  and  individuality  of  sentiment 
"Abschied"*,  and  especially  the  two  sonnets  "Die  Liebende  abermals''^, 
and  "Sie  kann  nicht  enden"6,  in  which  the  individual  and  specific  ten- 
dency in  Goethe  had  reached  its  highest  summit. 

/  Love  in  the  life  of  the  common  people  is  faithfully  treated  with  con- 
creteness  and  truthfulness:  "Schafers  Klagelied",  and  especially  "Der 
Goldschmiedsgesell"  which  is  thoroughly  unconventional. 

The  spirit  of  concreteness  and  the  sense  of  the  actual  pervades  Goe- 
the's poems  on  nature:  "Marz"^,  "Wechsel"8,  "Willkommen  und  Ab- 
schied"9,  "Mailied"'",  etc.,  and  especially  the  first  two  odes  to  Behrischi'. 
In  the  second  one  of  these  odes  swamps  (tote  Siimpfe),  October  fogs, 
nasty  insects,  snakes,  toads,  caterpillars,  and  spiders  are  mentioned. 
This  introduction  of  nature  in  its  less  agreeable  aspects  is  quite  a  step 
toward  the  realism  of  Annette  von  Droste-Hiilshoff. 

That  vague  suggestion  which,  in  contrast  to  blunt  narration,  softens 
the  harshness  and  cruelty  of  real  events,  and  which  so  often  appears  in 
folk-poetry,  is  characteristic  of  "Die  Spinnerin"i2.  Xhe  latter  poem 
goes  back  to  a  similar  poem  by  Voss^^,  which  in  turn  owes  its  existence  to 
a  Scottish  poem.  But  while  Voss  merely  narrates  a  flirtation,  Goethe's 
poem  vaguely  hints  at  much  more  serious  events.  But  even  here  the 
realism  is  still  of  the  folk-song  type,  while  the  following  poem  "Vor 
Gericht"'*  is  more  direct,  more  realistic  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  term. 

The  humorous  "Gutmann  und  Gutweib"i5  must  surely  be  ranked  with 
Goethe's  most  realistic  poems;  it  introduces  us  into  the  interior  of  the 
average  man's  home,  and  pictures  the  petty  argument  of  a  married 

ip.  9.  2p.  16.  3p.20.  4p.4i.  5v.  II,  p.8.  6v.  II,  p.8.  ^y.  II,  p.  214. 
8p.  41.  9p.  44.  lOpp.  46  and  52.  ^v.  Ill,  pp.  52  and  54.  i^p.  117. 
i^Hempel's  Klassiker-Ausgaben,  Voss,  Berlin,  n.d.,  part  III,  p.  45. 
i4p.  118.     i5p.  343. 

13 


couple  over  a  trivial  a#air.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  most  of  the 
realism  of  the  eighteenth  century  has  been  related  to  the  depicting  of 
out-door  life,  while  interiors  of  homes  only  rarely  attract  the  attention 
of  poets. 

In  passing  it  might  also  be  well  to  point  to  the  vividness  and  concrete- 
'  nessof  Goethe's  descriptions,  such  as  that  of  the  feeding  of  the  poultry 
/    in  "Lilis  Park"i. 

The  specific  and  concrete  tendency  has  led  to  the  special  mention  of 
many  well-known  places  in  the  vicinity  of  Weimar  in  "Die  Lustigen  von 
Weimar"2,  while  it  has  also  led  the  poet  to  refer  to  the  Grand  Duke  and 
his  own  success  as  a  poet  in  one  of  his  epigrams^.  In  both  of  these  poems 
Goethe  has  refrained  from  veiling  reality  with  fictitious  names  and  in- 
direct allusions. 

Although  Goethe  had  not  described  his  Italian  trip  in  poetry,  some 
of  his  epigrams  give  strikingly  realistic  glimpses  of  the  southern  coun- 
try: the  inclination  of  the  native  to  outwit  and  dupe  the  stranger*, 
the  trip  in  the  gondola  along  the  side  of  the  big  freight  ships  in  the  canal^, 
the  shady  resorts  in  the  byways  of  Venice^,  etc. 

The  Roman  Elegies  although  not  written  in  a  popular  vein,  are,  never- 
theless, remarkable  for  their  frankness  and  strong  individual  tendency. 

Trivial  details  are  not  wanting  in  some  of  the  poems  of  Goethe.  "An 
Friederike  Oeser"^  mentions  the  teething  of  the  child;  we  also  find  the 
diapers  of  a  baby  mentioned^.  In  one  of  his  epistles  Goethe  discusses 
the  ideal  girl  from  the  standpoint  of  one  who  believes  that  reading 
should  have  no  part  in  the  education  of  the  fair  sex:  she  reads  only  the 
cook  book,  raises  useful  vegetables,  sews,  mends,  washes,  and  irons,  and 
she  always  has  enough  to  do  because  her  long  dresses  raise  the  dust  in 
the  streets  and  on  the  dancing  floor*^. 

At  times  Goethe's  language  is  quite  unconventional:  "Willst  nicht 
Salz  und  Schmalz  verlieren,  musst — wenn  die  Leute  willst  gastieren, 
dich  nach  Schnauz'  und  Schnabel  richten"io. 

Sometimes,  however,  Goethe  has  treated  of  simple  folks  and  fallen 
short  of  attaining  the  illusion  of  reality  as  Voss  and  Schubart  had  suc- 
ceeded in  doing.  This  is  due  to  the  conventional  mode  of  expression; 
i.e.,  in  "Die  gliicklichen  Gatten''^:  "Und  hunderttausend  Siegel  be- 
kraftigten  den  Bund — Und  Amor  trug  das  Feuer  selbst  in  das  Rohr  am 

»v.  II,  p.  66.  2p.  97.  3No.  35.  ^No.  4.  sno.  5.  6No.  69  and  No.  70. 
7v.  Ill,  p.  56.     8v.  II,  p.  147.     9p.  203.     lOy.  II,  p.  144.     up.  73. 

14 


See".  This  portrayal  of  simple  folk  without  real  simplicity  reminds  us 
of  Uhland  and  Wilhelm  Muller. 

•  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Goethe  represents  five  different  literary 
periods  in  his  poetry:  the  Anacreontic,  the  Storm  and  Stress,  the  clas- 
sical, the  romantic,  and  the  realistic  period,  which  was  the  reaction  against 
romanticism.  The  entire  break  with  romanticism  is  foreshadowed  in 
"Den  Vereinigten  Staaten"'. 

The  short  epic  "Hermann  und  Dorothea"  is  realistic  throughout,  al 
though  perhaps  less  so  than  Voss's  "Luise".  Goethe  has  here  depicted 
the  inhabitants  of  the  small  country  town,  Concreteness  and  vivid- 
ness of  description  are  found  here  also:  we  see  the  emigrants,  are  told 
in  detail  about  their  utensils,  see  the  wagon  upset  on  the  dusty  road, 
hear  the  livestock  and  the  dogs,  as  swell  as  the  cries  of  women  and  child- 
ren, the  complaints  of  the  aged  and  the  sick,  and  the  noise  of  the  old 
wagon- wheeP ;  or  we  read:  "Man  horte  der  stamp fenden  Pferde  f er- 
nes Getose  sich  nahn,  man  horte  den  rollenden  Wagen,  der  mit  gewal- 
tiger  Eile  nun  donnert'  unter  dem  Torweg"^,  and  (in  connection  with 
the  description  of  the  fire),  "Geh  weg!  du  verbrennest  die  Sohlen,  denn 
der  Schutt  ist  heiss,  er  sengt  mir  die  starkeren  Stiefel"*.  Among  the 
things  mentioned  in  "Hermann  und  Dorothea"  are:  dusty  shoes^,  per- 
spiration^,  factories^,  flies  buzzing  around  glasses^,  garbage  in  ditches 
and  streets^,  and  the  caterpillars  on  the  garbage  i^. 
^  The  idealistic  Schiller  never  was  very  realistic  except  in  a  few  of  his 
dramas,  which  is  beyond  the  scope  of  this  dissertation.  In  Schiller's 
poems  not  only  realism,  but  also  the  simplicity  of  the  folk-song,  are 
practically  lacking.  "Die  Kindesmorderin"^  nevertheless,  is  a  grim  po- 
f  etic  representation  of  the  cruelty  of  the  world  viewed  through  the 
/  eyes  of  the  unfortunate  victim.  In  "Die  beriihmte  Frau"i2  reality  is 
I    turned  into  grotesque  caricature. 

THE  EARLY  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

I  There  were  a  few  popular  and  realistic  dialect  poets  at  the  dawn  of 
/  the  nineteenth  century  who  are  hard  to  classify  according  to  groups  or 
f    schools.    The  most  important  of  these  is  J.  P.  Hebel. 

Hebel's  "Allemannische  Gedichte"  (1803)  are  written  in  dialect.   Hebel 
has  reproduced  the  speech  of  the  common  people  with  such  exactness 

iv.  IV,  p.  127.  2"Hermann  und  Dorothea"  in  v.  V,  of  ed.  ref.  to  pp.  161- 
162.     3p.  165.     4p.  170.     5p.  158.     6p.  153.     7p.  159.     Sp.  163.     9p.  175. 

lop.  179.  iiEd.  used  for  Schiller:  Sakular-Ausgabe,  BerHn  and  Stutt- 
gart, n.d.  ref.  to,  p.  30.     J2p.  251. 

15 


/ 


that  the  reader  can  easily  picture  the  peasant  speaking  in  every  poem. 
No  one  has  been  able  to  attain  the  illusion  of  reality  more  completely 
by  accurately  repeating  the  speech  of  the  peasants.  In  "Agatha"!  the 
funeral  of  the  godfather,  whom  death  has  saved  from  long  sickness  and 
mean  neighbors,  is  described.  There  the  poet  quotes  the  people  at  the 
coffin:  "Er  het  au  sini  Fehler  gha  s'macht  niit!  Mer  denke  niimmer  dra. 
— Gang  Agethli,  und  halt  di  wohl!  Di  Stiindli  schlacht  der  au  ne  mol". 

The  poems  of  Hebel  largely  deal  with  peasant  life.  The  peasant  go- 
ing home  from  work  smoking  his  pipe  is  better  off  than  the  emperor  in 
"Der  zufriedene  Landmann"2.  Even  nature  is  personified  by  compari- 
sons with  peasants  and  peasant  life.  The  river  Wiese  is  a  peasant  girl 
walking  through  the  country3,  while  Saturday,  Sunday,  and  the  sun  are 
introduced  as  peasants  in  "Sonntagsfriihe"*. 

The  less  agreeable  aspects  of  peasant  life  are  only  lightly  touched. 
We  hear  that  some  of  the  young  m.en  spend  their  time  drinking,  swear- 
ing, and  gambling  away  their  money  at  cards,  while  the  wife  reads  in 
the  old  torn  prayer  book^.  We  see  the  men  in  the  excitement  of  the 
game:  "Chriitz  iscli  Trunipf!  Und  no  ne  mol!  Und  chonnet  der  die  do? 
Gstoche  die!  und  no  ne  Trumpf!  Und  gstoche  das  Herzli"^.  "Der 
Jenner"7  tells  of  the  suffering  of  the  poor  in  winter. 

Not  only  rural  laborers,  but  also  the  workmen  at  the  blast  furnace 
receive  the  attention  of  Hebel^.  It  would  appear  that  manufacturing 
and  industry  had  already  come  into  the  foreground  too  strongly  to  be 
ignored.  In  the  last  named  poem  the  thrifty  laborer  wipes  the  perspira- 
tion from  his  brow  with  the  shirtsleeve^ ;  the  blast  furnace  is  described, 
the  life  of  the  workmen  is  pictured;  the  laborer  carries  his  money  home 
on  pay  day,  when  wife  and  supper  await  him.  The  small  boy  who 
tries  to  smoke  sees  his  pipe  taken  away  from  him  by  the  workman.  Fi- 
nally we  are  reminded  of  the  great  importance  of  the  smelting  industry. 
All  this,  of  course,  is  decidedly  idealized,  but  there  is  an  approach  to 
naturalism  in  subject  matter. 

The  tendency  to  teach,  already  strong  in  "Der  Schrrelzofen",  is  evi.n 
stronger  in  "Das  Habermuss"!'^,  which  tells  how  the  mother  makes  oat- 
meal mush  for  her  children  before  they  go  to  school;  the  mother  gives 
a  complete  history  of  the  mush,  imparting  to  her  children  the  knowledge 
of  how  oats  are  raised  and  finally  converted  to  mush.  The  teaching  ten- 
dency has  obviously  induced  Hebel   to  treat  of  more  specific   occur- 

lEd.  used  for  Hebel:  Kiirschner's  Deutsche -National-Literatur,  Berlin 
and  Stuttgart,  n.d.  ref.  to  p.  119.  2p.  85.  3p.  17.  4p.  73.  5"Der  Car- 
funkel",  p.  36.  ^Hnes  165-166.  7p.  91.  8"Der  Schmelzofen",  p.  29. 
91ine  30.     lOp.  69. 

16 


fences  than  the  eighteenth  century  rcaUsts,  but  there  is  doubtless  a 
corresponding  lack  of  naivete  in  these  poems.  "Die  Marktweiber  in  der 
Stadt"!  has  been  criticised  by  Goethe  because  of  its  tendency  to  preach 
and  its  lack  of  naivete. 

To  offset  this,  Hebel  has  at  other  times  written  poems  of  great  sim- 
plicity. "Hans  und  Verene"^,  and  "Der  Schreinergesell''^,  the  song  of 
the  carpenter's  assistant  whose  back  aches  from  bending  over. 
!  The  most  minute  realism  appears  in  the  poems  of  Hebel :  he  mentions 
the  fly  that  annoys  him  while  he  is  reading  about  the  peace  treaty  of 
Tilsit  in  the  newspaper*.  The  most  commonplace  things  inspire  him 
to  write  poetry:  i.e.,  the  spider  which  spins  its  web  and  catches  a  fly  in 
"Die  Spinne"5. 

Specific  references  to  localities  occur  especially  in  "Der  Schwarzwal- 
der  im  Breisgau"^.  Specific  references  to  nature  are  especially  promin- 
ent in  "Sonntagsfruhe"^,  where  the  odor  of  cherry-blossoms,  of  black- 
thorn, as  well  as  bees,  yellow  violets,  tulips,  asters,  hyacinths,  and 
French  cowslips  are  mentioned. 

"Das  Ge witter" 8  is  one  of  the  most  realistic  descriptions  of  a  thun- 
derstorm in  poetry.  The  poet  pictures  the  birds  flying  low,  black  skies, 
clouds  of  dust  carrying  leaves  and  grass  with  them,  the  wind  tearing 
the  clouds  apart  like  the  peasant  who  pulls  wool  apart,  lightning  ac- 
companied by  thunder,  incessant  ra,in,  and  hail.  A  dismal  landscape 
with  poisonous  herbs,  no  birds,  and  toads,  is  portrayed  in  "Der  Car- 
funkel"9.* 

Hebel  was  not  the  only  dialect  poet  of  his  day.  Goethe  comments 
upon  the  poems  of  Griibel  in  the  dialect  of  Nuremburgio.  These  poems 
even  preceded  the  poems  of  Hebel,  appearing  in  1798,  1800,  and  1801. 
According  to  Goethe  these  poems  are  strictly  urban  in  spirit,  which  sig- 
nifies a  break  between  realism  and  the  treatment  of  rural  life.  Griibel 
himself  was  a  humble  tinsmith.  His  poems  often  tell  us  of  the  suffering 
caused  by  famine,  cold  weather,  floods,  and  war.  One  of  the  poems, 
"Der  Rauchtabak",  is  cited  by  Goethe. 

Less  realistic  poets  of  the  early  nineteenth  century  still  show  a  re- 
markable consciousness  of  reality;  even  when  voicing  the  noblest  sen- 
timents they  never  loose  touch  with  real  life.  This  is  true  of  Arndt 
and  Schenkendorf,  the  singers  of  the  war  of  liberation, 

»p.  44,  Goethe's  comment  in  v.  XXXVI  of  Goethe's  works,  p.  236. 
2p.  66.  3p.  65.  4"Beim  Friedensschluss",  p.  128.  ^p.  95.  ^p.  121. 
7p.  78.  8p.  1 13.  9"Der  Carfunkel",  p.  36.  JOsee  v.  XXXVI  of  Goethe's 
works,  p.  244. 

*It  is  to  be  noted  that  Hebel  sometimes  introduces  us  into  the  in- 
terior of  a  peasant  home  where  the  women  spin  and  the  father  smokes 
his  pipe,  as  in  "Der  Carfunkel",  or  in  "Riedligers  Tochter",  p.  122. 

17 


Max  von  Scheiikendorf s  religious  feeling  is  compatible  with  the 
mention  of  commonplace  events;  the  people  going  to  church  on  a  bright 
Sunday  morning  inspire  him  in  a  religious  way'. 

A  similar  spirit  rules  E.  M.  Arndt.  "Abendlied"2,  a  poem  giving  ut- 
terance to  religious  sentiments,  begins  with  a  humble  picture  of  the  cir- 
cumstances under  which  the  prayer  is  uttered:  "Der  tag  ist  nun  ver- 
gangen  und  dunkel  schlaft  die  Welt — ich  aber,  Vater,  stehe  in  meiner 
Haustiir",  In  "Die  Rheinfahrt"^  we  find  high-strung  enthusiasm  and 
also:  "Nein,  wahrlich  nicht  zum  Stohnen,  Wimmern,  Weinen,  schnellt 
heut'  der  Dampf  uns  siegreich  durch  die  Flut". 

"Spazierende  Gedanken"^  shows  the  poet  walking  through  the  city 
streets  and  thinking  of  death;  he  says:  "Wird  doch  seinem  fiiichtigen 
Bleiben  allhier  Rappell  bald  zum  Abmarsch  geblasen".  This  introduc- 
tion of  phrases  connected  with  military  recollections  into  fairly  serious 
poetry  reminds  us  somewhat  of  Liliencron's  manner,  when  the  latter  in 
one  of  the  relatively  serious  parts  of  "Poggfred"5  says:  "Fern  Hess  zu  mir 
empor  ein  Ordensschwur  den  Hohenfriedeberger  Marsch  erschallen". 
Later  in  the  same  poem  of  Arndt  we  hear  that  St.  Peter  examines  the 
passes  of  the  souls  at  the  gate  of  heaven.  This  introduction  of  realism 
into  the  conception  of  the  hereafter  was  not  meant  to  be  sacriligious, 
neither  is  it  so  regarded  by  the  German  reader. 

A  very  large  part  of  Arndt's  poems  were  written  in  connection  with 
real  occurrences  in  the  poet's  life,  as  "Meiner  kleinen  Patin  Johanne 
Gartner"^;  or  they  were  prompted  by  contemporary  events,  such  as 
"An  die  Junglinge  die  Krieg  schreien"^. 

The  attitude  of  the  various  romantic  poets  toward  realism  was  by 
no  means  the  same. 

The  poetry  of  the  Jena  romanticists,  especially  Novalis  and  Tieck,  is 
practically  devoid  of  realistic  tendencies.  Beyond  all  doubt  these  men 
were  important  forerunners  of  the  modern  symbolists,  but  they  have 
nothing  in  common  with  the  naturalists. 

A  totally  different  spirit  prevailed  among  the  members  of  the  Heidel- 
berg school:  Arnim  and  Brentano  are  important  precursors  of  the  na- 
turalists as  well  as  of  the  symbolists.  This  might  be  expected,  since 
they  jointly  edited  "Des  Knaben  Wunderhorn"  (1806),  and  were  there- 
fore in  close  touch  with  folk-poetry.     Eichendorff,  who  was  associated 

i"Bibliothek  der  deutschen  Klassiker",  Hildburghausen,  1861,  v.  XVII, 
p.  520.  ^Jld.  used  for  Arndt:  Leipsic,  n.  d.  Karl  Pfau,  ref.  to  p.  63. 
3p.  213.  4p.  233.  ^Liiiencron's  "Poggfred",  ed.  Berlin  and  Leipsic, 
1904,  p.  117.     6p.  109.     7p.  122. 

18 


with  the  Heidelberg  group,  also  shows  a  leaning  toward  realism.  While 
none  of  these  poets  is  so  consistently  realistic  as  some  of  the  members 
of  the  "Hain"  or  the  Storm  and  Stress,  the)^  still  display  striking  ex- 
amples of  realistic  feeling  at  times. 

Arnim  is  still  possessed  of  the  old  spirit  of  rural  realism  in  "Der 
kranke  Knabe"i,  where  such  passages  as  this  occur:  "Jeder  fragt  nach 
Witterung.  Die  Alten,  well  sie  ernten  wollen,  und  weil  sie  lieben,  die 
noch  jung.  "But  in  "Des  Verschmahten  Klage"2  there  is  no  evidence 
that  the  person  speaking  the  following  passage  is  a  peasant:  "Der 
Wachter  rufet  seine  Stunden,  der  Kranke  jammert  seine  Schmerzen". 
Arnim  is  also  beginning  to  express  the  cruelty,  the  cold  lack  of  feeling 
and  sympathy  in  nature:  "Die  Sterne  lachen  mich  zum  Hohne  an"'. 
Like  the  modern  naturalists,  he  voices  his  compassion  for  unfortunates; 
i.e.,  the  blind  beggar'^,  and  the  innocently  convicted  prisoners^  But 
unlike  many  of  the  moderns,  Arnim  finds  comfort  in  the  belief  in  a 
hereafter.  He  has  only  reproach  for  the  girl  who  once  knitted  for  a 
bare  living,  and  who  now  lives  in  ease  and  comfort  as  one  of  the  fallen 
women^. 

The  supremely  gifted  and  original  Clemens  Brentano  was  even  more 
realistic.  His  language  seems  to  be  more  simple  than  that  of  Arnim. 
But  even  aside  from  this,  some  of  his  poems  appear  to  be  more  modern 
in  spirit  than  any  which  we  have  examined  heretofore. 

Brentano,  extremely  many-sided  as  a  poet,  was  able  to  imitate  the 
folk-song  with  its  inherent  realism,  as  in  "Der  Spinnerin  Lied"^.  On 
the  other  hand  he  has  represented  the  dark  sides  of  life  in  a  direct  way 
that  far  surpasses  the  realism  of  the  folk-song,  and  which  is  quite  mod- 
ern. Thus  "Fragment  aus  einem  ungedruckten  Roman"^  deals  in  a 
tragically  realistic  spirit  of  the  girl  who  is  forced  to  live  as  an  outcast, 
and  the  poem  emphasizes  the  tragedy  of  her  existence. 

This  new  realism  occasionally  blends  with  the  old,  as  in  "O  lieb  Ma- 
del,  wie  schlecht  bist  du!"^.  It  is  the  story  of  a  lovemad  man  devoted 
to  a  girl  of  doubtful  morals  who  has  been  the  cause  of  his  ruin.  It  has 
the  refrain  of  the  folk-song,  but  in  spirit  it  is  equally  remote  from  the 

>Arnim's  poems  in  "Bibliothek  der  deutschen  Klassiker",  Hildburg- 
hausen,  1864,  v.  XIV,  ref.  to  p.  460.  2p.  455.  3" Die  Uhr  der  Liebe", 
p.  464.  4"i3er  Blinde",  p.  457.  5'%ied  vor  einem  Gefangnisse",  p.  459. 
6"Die  arme  Schonheit",  p.  463.  ''Ed.  used  for  Brentano,  unless  stated 
otherwise:  Frankfort,  1852,  v.  II,  This  edition  is  rather  rare  now,  so 
that  other  ed.  are  referred  to  if  possible.  The  latter  are  unfortunately 
incomplete.  "Der  Spinnerin  Lied"  in  Kurschner's  Deutsche  National- 
Literatur,  Berlin  and  Stuttgart,  n.d.  p.  136.  Sp.  375.  'Kiirschner, 
p.  148. 

19 


) 


latter's  simplicity  as  well  as  from  the  spirit  of  classicism.  To  be  sure, 
this  poem  would  remind  us  of  the  realistic  impressionism  of  the  late 
Frank  Wedekind  rather  than  of  naturalism  proper,  Brentano's  poem, 
however,  lacks  the  crassitude,  the  detail  of  narration,  and  the  vividness 
of  its  counterpart  in  Wedekind,  "Die  Keuschheit"'.  Brentano's  "Ma- 
cenas"2  also  points  to  Heine  and  Wedekind,  especially  by  its  fusion  of 
humor  and  bitterness.  It  narrates  the  experiences  of  a  poet  who  tries 
to  enter  into  the  monarch's  favor.  The  foul  fumes  of  the  lamp  are  men- 
tioned, and  the  similarity  to  Heine  is  still  increased  by  the  use  of  words 
like  "soupiren"  and  "recolligirte", 

I  must  now  guard  against  conveying  the  impression  that  Brentano's 
realism  is  largely  of  the  impressionistic  and  grotesque  type.  In  "Trip- 
pel,  trippel,  trap,  trab,  trap"^,  where  the  girl  instructs  her  lover  as  to 
the  way  leading  up  the  dark  stairs  to  her  room  when  the  family  is  asleep , 
we  jfind:  "Stoss  mir  nicht  die  Klibel  um. — Auf  der  Treppe  in  der  Mitt' 
mache  einen  grossen  Schritt,  von  vier  Stufen  fehlt  die  dritt'.  In  das 
Maul  nimm  deine  Schuh! — ".  This  advice,  with  the  warning  to  avoid 
the  hired  man's  room  and  the  pigeon  coop,  was  given  in  fun,  but  leads 
to  serious  consequences,  since  the  girl  overestimates  her  power  to  resist: 
"Mutter  nach  vier  Monden  sang:  Madel,  s'wird  mir  angst  und  bang, 
sonst  war  ja  dein  Rockchen  lang".  This  poem  is  not  only  one  of  the 
most  realistic  of  the  romantic  period,  but  it  also  stands  out  as  dealing 
with  an  absolutely  special  occurrence.  It  is  the  latter  quality  that 
sharply  contrasts  with  the  four  poems  of  Brentano  mentioned  before, 
especially  "Der  Spinnerin  Lied". 

When  following  in  the  footsteps  of  the  folk-song,  the  romanticists  have 
always  presented  typical  phases  of  human  life,  for  the  folk-song  is  of 
itself  quite  as  conventional  and  impersonal  as  classic  art.  On  the  other 
hand  romanticism  is  highly  individualistic  in  tendency,  and  being  a  re- 
action against  classicism,  it  protests  against  the  limited  number  of  sub- 
jects treated  by  the  classic  poets.  Thus  the  romantics  were  naturally 
impelled  to  go  beyond  the  typical  cases  treated  by  their  predecessors, 
and  to  introduce  the  much  more  numerous  individual  and  specific  oc- 
currences of  real  life  into  their  poems. 

The  realism  of  Brentano  is  practically  completely  divorced  from  the 
treatment  of  rural  life.  A  brief  picture  of  a  street  scene  occurs  in  "Lied 
von  eines  Studenten  Ankunft  in  Heidelberg  und  seinem  Traum  auf  der 
Briicke"*,  where  the  following  conversation  between  husband  and  wife 
is  also  recorded:  "Ans  Licht  swoll'n  wir  den  Rock  recht  halten,  so  fliehn 
die  Motten  aus  den  Falten".     "Keine  sind  darein,  ich  streut  ihn  dir 

iWedekind's  works,  Munich  and  Leipsic,  1912,  v.  I,  p.  65.  2p.  447. 
3p.  164,  Kiirschner,  p.  150.     ■♦p.  6. 

20 


;;  mit  PfefFer  ein".    Brentano  has  also  introduced  the  reader  into  realis- 

■  tic  interiors  to  a  much  greater  extent  than  previous  poetic  tradition 
would  have  permitted.    "Und  man  wird  Geheimerafi  is  a  description 

■  of  a  child's  life,  and  in  particular  of  the  child's  toys  (trumpet,  lead- 
soldiers,  whistles,  drum,  the  cuckoo,  clown,  music  box,  etc.);  we  hear 
that  the  child  is  in  danger  of  swallowing  the  thimble,  and  later  hear  of 
his  troubles  at  school.  "Die  beruhmte  Kochin"2  is  an  exact  descrip- 
tion of  how  the  cook  bakes  a  man  of  dough.  "Zum  Eingang.  Riick- 
blick  in  die  Jahre  der  Kindheit"^  leads  the  reader  into  the  large  room 
in  which  the  poet  slept  with  brothers  and  sisters  during  his  childhood. 
Skirts  are  hung  over  the  arm  of  a  chair,  and  the  cat  is  playing  with  a 
garter. 

Brentano  is  the  most  typical  romantic  lyricist.  He  has  represented  all 
/  the  different  phases  of  romanticism  in  his  poetry:  he  is  the  forerunner 
/  of  the  symbolists,  the  grotesque  impressionists,  and  the  real  natural- 
ists. He  has  probably  taken  a  greater  step  tovvard  the  modern  spirit 
than  any  other  poet  discussed.  But  he  was  in  advance  of  his  day;  it 
was  Heine  who  continued  the  work  of  Brentano,  while  many  of  the 
poets  to  whom  we  shall  next  turn  are  merely  realists  of  the  folk-song 
type. 

/     This  is  especially  true  of  Eichendorff.    Eichendorff's  motto  seems  to 

/  have  been:  "Nur  des  Lebens  schone  Runde  lehret  dich  den  Zauber- 

spruch"4.    It  must  be  said  to  his  credit  that  he  has  been  able  to  unite 

\  the  utmost  simplicity  of  expression  to  subtle  melody  of  language.  His 

art  is  pronouncedly  democratic. 

Eichendorff's  poems  deal  with  outdoor  life,  especially  with  the  life 
of  the  wandering  minstrel,  who  has  an  ideal  existence  in  summer,  but 
a  hard  time  in  winter,  in  the  cold  weather  without  shoes^.  Only  oc- 
casionally brief  glimpses  into  the  interior  of  rooms  are  found,  notably 
at  night,  when  the  clock  ticks^,  or  when  the  wind  howls  around  the 
housed.  Eichendorff  dislikes  city  life,  the  market  place,  referring  to 
which  he  writes:  "Es  qualmt'  der  eitle  Markt  in  Staub  und  Schwiile''^. 
City  life  is  only  very  briefly  treated  in  "In  Danzig'"^,  and  in  "In  der 
Fremde"io. 

On  a  whole,  Eichendorff  is  a  nature  poet.  Nature  is  usually  idealized, 
although  there  are  plenty  of  references  to  cold,  raw,  disagreeable  weath- 

ip.  455.  2p^  465.  3first  poem  of  v.  I  of  Frankfort  ed.  Also  in  ed.  of 
the  Bibliographische  Institut,  Leipsic  and  Vienna,  n.d.  *Ed.  used  for 
Eichendorff':  Leipsic,  1864,  v.  I.  Quotation  in  "Das  Bilderbuch",  p.  301. 
5"Der  Musikant",  p.  239.  6"Das  Alter",  p.  258.  ^"Auf  eines  Kindes 
Tod",  No.  8,  p.  545.     8"Andenken",  p.  534.     9p.  432.     lOp.  260. 

21 


eri.  But  the  season  soon  reappears  of  which  the  poet  writes:  "Von  alien 
Dachern  tropfelt  lustig  schon  der  Schnee"2.  Sad  melancholy  landscapes 
are  referred  to  in  "Trauriger  Winter"^  and  "Im  Herbst"*.  Eichendorff 
is  not  so  concrete  and  specific  as  the  eighteenth  century  realists  in  re- 
gard to  nature  treatment,  except  in  "Durcheinander"^  and  "Spazier- 
gang"<5,  where  he  mentions  sparrows,  thistles,  nettles,  oxen,  potatoes, 
the  corn  rose,  dandelion,  buttercup,  and  the  pink. 

In  some  of  his  ballads  Eichendorff  creates  an  atmosphere  of  reality 
by  certain  clever  touches:  "Schon  Hahne  krahen  in  Dorfern  weit"^, 
"Nur  auf  den  Wiesen  noch  die  Heimchen  sangen"8,  "Die  Hunde  bel- 
len,  die  Fenster  fern  erleuchtet  stehen"^. 

The  poem  "Der  Auswanderer"io  is  filled  with  a  contemporary  spirit 
which  must  have  seemed  decidedly  realistic  in  its  day.  The  steam  rail- 
road, the  emigrants  going  to  America  and  expecting  to  find  mountains 
of  gold,  and  the  steamboat  going  up  the  Hudson  are  introduced.  On 
the  deck  of  the  boat  everyone  is  reading  a  newspaper  and  "Zuweilen 
nur  ein  Rauschen  schallt,  wenn  einer's  Blatt  umdrehte". 

Although  usually  considered  a  romanticist,  Eichendorff  is  conscious 
of  the  tendency  to  break  with  romanticism:  "Und  vor  Allem  lass  die 
Possen.dieman  sonstgenanntromantisch"!!.  "An  die  Dichter"i2  speaks 
of  the  arrival  of  a  drier  and  more  prosaic  spirit. 

'  Justinus  Kerner,  the  last  of  the  really  romantic  poets  whom  we  shall 
/  discuss,  is  also  a  folk-song  realist.  "Der  Wanderer  in  der  Sagemuhle"i3  is 
characteristic  of  his  realistic  mood.  Kerner  is  often  very  specific  in 
his  references,  as  in  "Im  Dezember  in  Munchen"i4.  The  railroad  is  re- 
peatedly mentioned  as  in  "Im  Eisenbahnhofe"!''  and  "Das  Schnellste"i<', 
but  the  poet  is  decidedly  hostile  toward  the  innovation,  which  he  re- 
gards as  a  menace  to  romance.  "Fiir  Peter  Brukmanns  Arbeiter  zur 
Einweihung  eines  neuerbauten  Fabrikgebaudes"i7  also  shows  conscious- 
ness of  modern  innovations.  But  Kerner's  attitude  toward  modern  rev- 
olutionary tendencies  is  hostile,  as  shown  by  "In  das  Album  eines  jung- 
en  Roten  (1848)"i8.  The  last  named  poems  will  tend  to  show,  however, 
that  other  things  were  gradually  beginning  to  absorb  the  attention  of 
poets  outside  of  rural  and  outdoor  life. 

i"Ruckkehr",  p.  264.  2"Der  vSperling",  p.  460.  3p.  439.  4p.  492. 
5p.  459.  ^p.  461.  7"Nachtwanderer",  p.  638.  ^"Der  Unbekannte", 
p.  644.  9"Der  armen  Schonheit  Lebenslauf",  p.  695.  lOp.  248.  ""Ent- 
gegnung",  p.  326.  ^^p.  353.  ^^lEd.  used  for  Kerner:  Leipsic,  n.d.  Max 
Hesse,  re.  to  v.  I,  p.  288.  i^y.  II,  p.  16.  isy.  n,  p.  35.  iCy.  I,  p.  248. 
i7v.  II,  p.  66.     i8v.  II,  p.  29. 

22 


/  Chamisso  has  undoubtedly  contributed  more  to  the  development  of 
naturalism  than  Eichendorff  or  Kerner.  Although  sometimes  regarded 
as  a  member  of  the  Berlin  group  of  romanticists,  Chamisso's  tempera- 
ment is  decidedly  unromantic,  the  predominating  spirit  being  analytic- 
al, clear,  objective,  and  free  from  that  mysticism  which  is  so  charac- 
teristic of  the  real  romantic  school.  He  somewhat  resembles  B Granger, 
whom  he  adapted  to  the  German. 

Chamisso's  realism  is  almost  always  urban  and  very  frequently  it 
even  appears  in  describing  indoor  life.  For  example,  he  shows  us  a  boy 
playing  in  a  room,  breaking  the  mirror,  and  facing  a  whipping  in  con- 
sequence i.  Or  we  see  the  small  girl  playing  with  her  dolP.  "Recht 
empfindsam"3  presents  an  interior,  and  also  the  way  in  which  mar- 
riage was  brought  about  in  days  that  are  not  too  far  away.  An  edu- 
cated girl  is  forced  to  marry  an  uneducated  man  against  her  will.  The 
dispute  between  the  father  and  his  defiant  daughter  ends  when  the 
former  exclaims:  "Gut  du  bleibst  mir  heut'  zu  Haus,  haltst  dein  Maul 
und  nimmst  den  Bengel". 

The  keen  eye  which  Chamisso  possessed  for  human  foibles  is  very 
evident  in  the  last  named  poem.  Very  often  the  poet  tended  to  exag- 
gerate in  a  humorous  manner  in  order  to  satirize.  He  has  sometimes 
fused  the  sad  and  the  humorous  and  has  thus  become  the  forerunner  of 
Heine  and  the  Heinesque  spirit.  Humor  and  bitterness  are  strikingly 
intermingled  in  "Pech"'*,  a  poem  that  gains  in  interest  if  we  compare  it 
to  the  very  similar  song  of  Gaspard  Hauser  in  Verlaine's  "Sagesse''^. 
"Der  Invalide  im  Irrenhaus"^  is  also  full  of  cruel  and  grim  humor. 

Among  the  more  purely  humorous  and  satyrical  poems  of  Chamisso 
are:  "Es  ist  nur  so  der  Lauf  der  Welt" 7,  where  the  henpecked  husband 
is  presented;  "Massigung  und  Massigkeif's,  showing  us  the  drunkard 
on  his  spiral  course  and  the  scolding  vixen;  and  "Polterabend"^,  where 
a  woman  somewhat  along  in  years  prepares  for  the  dance  with  rouge, 
false  hair  and  teeth,  and  padding  to  perfect  the  figure. 

Socialistic  tendencies  as  such  do  not  seem  to  appear  in  Chamisso  to 
any  marked  extent,  although  he  wrote  two  poems  in  praise  of  his  wash- 
woman lo. 

That  bowling  is  mentioned  in  "Geduld"'i  might  be  mentioned  in 
passing. 

lEd.  used  for  Chamisso:  Kiirschner's  Deutsche  National-Iviteratur, 
Stuttgart,  n.d.  ref.  to  "Lebens-Lieder  und  Bilder",  p.  25,  No.  1.  2"Leb- 
ens-Lieder  und  Bilder",  p.  25,  No.  2.  3p.  83.  ♦p.  66.  Werlaine's 
poems,  Paris,  1911,  v.  I,  p.  270.  ^.  185.  7p.  64.  Sp.  67.  ^p.  §4. 
lOp.  48  and  50.     np.  65. 

23 


"Das  Dampfross"!  is  a  humorous  poem  concerning  a  well  known 
sscientific  fact.  It  also  appears  that  Chamisso's  attitude  toward  the 
team  locomotive  is  far  less  hostile  than  that  of  Kerner. 

In  treating  of  nature  Chamisso  has  not  overlooked  the  less  agreeable 
aspects,  as  can  be  seen  in  "Im  Herbst"2  and  "Nacht  und  Winter"^. 

Walzel,  in  his  preface  to  Chamisso's  poems*,  has  put  great  stress 
upon  the  naturalistic  spirit  of  such  narrative  poems  as  "Mateo  Falcone"^ 
"Don  Juanito"^  "Das  Kruzifix"^,  but  it  would  seem  that  too  much 
emphasis  has  been  put  on  the  purely  disagreeable  and  repulsive  as  a 
vital  element  in  naturalism.  The  subject  matter  of  these  poems  is  very- 
remote  from  every-day  occurrences;  but  probably  the  introduction  of 
crass  and  disagreeable  incidents  in  poems  like  these  has  helped  to  pave 
the  way  for  the  depicting  of  the  crass  and  disagreeable  in  reality.  And 
it  must  be  admitted  that  Chamisso  has  displayed  a  very  concrete  and 
vivid  imagination  in  these  poems.  Note,  for  instance,  the  sense  of  ac- 
tuality displayed  in  the  description  of  the  crucifixion  in  "Das  Kruzi- 
fix"8:  "Der  erste  Nagel  fasst;  es  schallt  ein  Schrei,  er  trifft  kein  Ohr, 
kein  Herz;  das  Auge  wacht  allein  und  forscht,  was  Schmerzensaus- 
druck  sei";  and  later  we  read:  "Sie  warf  sich  dann  zur  Erde  mit  Gewalt 
die  Stirne  schlagend  an  des  Estrichs  Steine,  die  Wolbung  hat  vom 
Schalle  wiederhallt"^.  In  "Der  Graf  und  der  Leibeigene''^'^  we  find:  "Wie 
trieft  der  Rappe  von  Schweiss  und  von  Blut".  This  sense  of  reality 
in  narrative  poems  and  the  attention  payed  to  specific  rather  than  to 
general  cases  again  make  Chamisso  the  precursor  of  Heine. 

As  a  characteristic  trait  of  Chamisso  we  might  finally  mention  his 
open  use  of  periodicals  in  choosing  fitting  subjects  for  poems.  Thus 
"Des  Basken  Etchehons  Klage"ii  goes  back  to  the  "Gazette  des  tri- 
bunaux",  while  "Das  Mordtal"i2  was  inspired  by  the  "North  American 
Review".  The  poet  never  made  any  attempt  to  hide  the  source  of  his 
subject  matter  in  these  poems,  even  drawing  the  readers*  attention  to 
the  event  or  the  periodical  which  suggested  the  poem.  There  is  there- 
fore nothing  of  the  old  tendency  to  represent  the  typical  in  the  man- 
ner of  Chamisso.  This  is  in  striking  contrast  to  the  method  of  Uhland, 
who  carefully  avoided  the  mention  of  anything  in  his  ballads  that  might 
cause  them  to  appear  as  being  inspired  by  any  contemporary  occurrence. 

»p.  74.     2p.  57.     3p.  61.     4p.  ex.     5p.  366.     6p.  349.     7p.  331.     sHne  55. 
9line  83.     JOp.  204.     up.  192.     i2p.  341. 

24 


It  is  noteworthy,  however,  that  in  theory  Chamisso  was  not  a  pro- 
nounced realist.  His  aversion  to  the  realism  of  contemporary  French 
novels  was  very  outspoken  •. 

The  contributions  of  Uhland  to  the  development  of  naturalism  are 
but  slight  as  compared  with  those  of  Chamisso.  In  fact,  Uhland  can 
scarcely  be  classed  as  a  strikingly  realistic  poet,  although  he  collected 
folk-songs  and  shows  folk-song  influence  in  his  poems.  But  the  folk- 
song spirit  in  Uhland  only  too  often  becomes  mere  mannerism.  Simple 
folks  are  speaking,  but  their  language  is  conventional  and  literary. 
We  are  not  convinced  of  the  reality  of  the  situation  when,  for  instance, 
an  uneducated  shepherd  exclaims:  "O  susses  Graun!  geheimes  Wehn!"2, 
and  the  lack  of  realistic  sense  in  Uhland  is  further  betrayed  when  he 
makes  the  shepherd  say  that  he  swings  his  sword  and  sings  his  song 
while  extinguishing  a  big  fire  in  the  town:  "Undschwingmein  Schwert 
und  sing  mein  Lied" 3, 

Slight  touches  of  realism,  however,  are  not  absent  in  Uhland.  "Die 
Nachtschwarmer",  No.  2^  mentions  the  wheel  and  chain  of  the  well  to 
which  the  girl  goes  for  water.  Humorous  glimpses  of  real  life  are  af- 
forded by  the  two  following  pictures  of  "Die  Nachtschwarmer",  en- 
titled "Der  Vorsichtige"  and  "Der  Schwankende".  "Fruhlingslied  des 
Recensenten"5  characterizes  spring  as  the  time  in  which  a  man  can 
take  a  walk  without  contracting  a  cold.  It  is  to  Uhland  that  we  owe  the 
peculiar  poetic  effusion  regarding  sausage  and  sauerkraut^.  "Wander- 
ung"7  again  mentions  sausage  and  beer.  "Nachtreise"  and  "Winter- 
reise"8  are  illustrative  of  Uhland's  attitude  toward  nature. 

The  ballads  of  Uhland  largely  deal  with  mediaeval  and  chivalrous 
life;  only  rarely  do  we  find  evidence  of  a  realistic  sense.  "Die  Mahderin"^ 
is  probably  the  most  realistic  among  Uhland's  ballads,  and  here  we  find 
some  passages  that  remind  us  of  the  rural  realism  of  Voss:  "Der  Mit- 
tag  gliihet",  "Noch  schaffen  im  heissen  Gefilde  die  summenden  Bien- 
en",  "Es  duften  die  Mahden". 

Wilhelm  Miiller  also  has  some  of  that  love  for  the  humbler  things  in 
life  which  is  the  heritage  of  the  folk-song,  and  with  him,  likewise,  folk- 
song influence  has  led  to  mannerism.  The  absolute  realism  which  we 
find  in  Voss  or  Hebel  is  almost  totally  lacking,  although  in  "Die  Braut- 
nacht"io  there  is  considerable  realism  in  the  description  of  the  distant 

ipp.  CXI  and  CXII.  2^d.  used  for  Uhland:  Stuttgart,  1898,  Quota- 
tion in  "Schafers  Sonntagslied",  p.  16.     ^"Bes  Knaben  Berglied",  p.  17. 

♦p.  123.     5p.  31.     6"Metzelsuppenlied",  p.  53.     7p.  84.     8p.  43 9p.  174. 

lopor  Wilhelm  Miiller  I  have  limited  myself  to  the  poems  in  the  "Bib- 
liothek  der  deutschen  Klassiker",  Hildburghausen,  1862,  v.  XVIII,  ref. 
to  p.  570. 

25 


thunder  and  lightning  on  a  hot  summer  night  and  the  arrival  of  the 
warm  shower  with  its  large  rain-drops.  And  in  "Morgenlied"i  we  even 
find  evidence  of  a  more  accurate  observation  of  nature:  "Horst  du  die 
Kafer  summen  nicht,  horst  du  das  Glas  nicht  klirren,  wenn  sie  be- 
taubt  von  Duft  und  Licht  hart  an  die  Scheiben  schwirren?" 

The  prolific  poet  Riickert  abounds  in  realism.  He  was  deeply  inter- 
ested in  the  events  and  occurrences  of  his  own  day.  The  Napoleonic 
period  is  recalled  in  "Der  deutsche  Grossvater"^  which  shows  the  grand- 
father and  grandchild  looking  through  the  window  and  seeing  the  troops 
marching  by.  Riickert  severely  satirizes  the  lethargy  of  his  country- 
men in  "Lied  eines  frankischen  Madchens"^. 

Riickert  is  induced  to  write  a  poem  by  a  pebble  in  "Auf  einen  Kicsel- 
stein"4,  a  severe  tooth-ache  in  "Der  hohle  Zahn"5,  a  pump  which  is 
hard  to  manage  while  drinking  in  "Der  Pumpbrunnen"^,  a  ragged  coat 
which  is  worn  in  the  house  in  "Der  Halbrock"'',  the  fact  that  he  has 
lost  his  hair  in  "Der  Haarverlusfs,  a  fly  that  has  drowned  in  the  ink 
in  "Kleines  Denkmal  einer  kleinen  Fliege"^,  a  piece  of  blotter  that  makes 
the  blot  worse  in  "Das  schlechteste  von  allem"'o.  He  writes  a  poem  in 
which  he  advocates  rubbers  as  a  protection  against  mudii,  or  one  in 
which  he  instructs  his  boys  in  climbing  a  tree^^;  on  another  occasion  he 
tells  how  one  of  his  boys  put  on  the  other's  breeches  by  mistake  to 
find  a  coin  in  the  pocket^^.  Riickert  creates  a  myth  out  of  a  very  trivial 
incident  in  "Der  Friihling  an  der  Grenze"'*,  or  he  uses  the  cheese  that 
is  covered  with  mites  as  a  simile  in  a  political  poem^^. 

Of  more  importance  is  Riickert's  care  in  the  presentation  of  indoor 
scenes,  as  in  "Die  nickende  Mutter" i6.  "Einfiihrung  in  die  Speisekam- 
mer"!''  was  written  for  a  wedding,  and  introduces  the  bride  to  her  house- 
hold duties,  especially  in  the  pantry.  The  scene  of  "Das  Hafensch- 
lagen"i8is  in  the  spinning  room.  "Die  Winterschule"i9  tells  how  the  small 
boy  is  taught  in  his  home  by  the  parson  in  winter;  the  parson  is  seated 
on  an  upholstered  chair  with  his  cap  over  his  ears,  while  the  girls  are 
spinning  near  the  stove;  the  little  girl  brings  in  the  soup  to  her  father 
and  an  apple  to  the  boy.  "Winterleben"20  contains  repeated  references 
to  the  comforts  of  indoor  life  and  the  stove  when  winter  has  come. 

ip.  570.  ^Ud.  used  for  Riickert:  Frankfort,  1882.  v.  II.  unless  otherwise 
stated,  "Der  deutsche  Grossvater",  v.  I,  p.  63.  ^v.  I,  p.  232.  4p.  86. 
5p.  152.  6p.  146.  7p.  175.  8p.  186.  9p.  201.  lOp.  208.  ii"Empfehl- 
ung  der  Ueberschuhe",  p.  546.  >2"Kletter-Unterricht",  p.  21.  i3"Ver- 
lust  und  Gewinn",  p.  39.  i^v.  I,  p.  134.  i5"Der  Schweizerkas  von 
1814",  V.  I,  p.  214.  »6p.  26.  i7p.  132.  isp.  264.  i^p.  271.  20pp.  593, 
595,  589,  590. 

26 


It  would  be  impossible  to  read  Riickert's  poems  without  being  im- 
pressed by  his  detailed  knowledge  of  plant  and  animal  life.  He  men- 
tions the  windfloweri,  primrose2,  the  purging  buckthorn^,  the  forget- 
me-not*,  maidenhair^,  the  bleeding  hearts,  the  monthly  rose^,  the  French 
cowslips,  the  asp^,  and  the  ash^O;  he  refers  to  the  parrot-finch^,  the  quail^^, 
the  thrushi3,  the  sparrow-hawk i*,  the  siskin^s,  the  plover^^,  the  fire  taiP^, 
chaffinch's,  the  jayi^,  the  swallow^o,  the  finch2i,  the  rhinoceros  beetle22, 
the  cabbage  butterfly 23,  etc.  We  must  also  consider  the  simple  and  real- 
istic attitude  toward  nature  in  such  poems  as  "Spaziergans-Unterhal- 
tungen"24,  where  the  poets  reflects  on  the  birds,  the  weather,  and  the 
cocoons  of  caterpillars.  The  same  spirit  prevails  in  "Fussreise-Erinne- 
rungen"25,  "DerunbequemeSchnee"26,and  "Winterleben"27.  "Fussreise- 
Erinnerungen"  allows  a  woman  who  sells  butter  to  voice  her  senti- 
ments of  getting  wet  feet.  The  following  passage  occurs  in  one  of  the 
short  poems  in  the  series  "V/interleben" :  "Auf  die  nass'  und  kot'ge 
Strass'  ist  auf  Polizeigebot  trockner  Kot  geworfen,  dass  abgeholfen  sei 
der  Not". 

Among  the  other  poems  of  Ruckert  we  must  not  overlook  "Spazier- 
gangsmiide"28,  picturing  the  tired  children  accompanying  their  father 
home  from  a  long  walk,  and  "Die  Sonnenfiecken"29^  which  mentions 
the  sun  spots,  thus  introducing  modern  astronomical  knowledge  inta 
poetry. 

THE  BREAK  WITH  ROMANTICISM 

No  other  poet,  not  even  Brentano,  made  such  tremendous  strides 
toward  the  modern  spirit  as  Heine.  And  since  Heine  is  quite  an  im- 
portant figure  in  the  history  of  the  German  lyric  and  remarkably  many- 
sided,  a  closer  and  more  detailed  examination  of  his  work  is  impera- 
tive. 

This  examination  must  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  Heine  not  only 
possesses  many  of  the  realistic  qualities  of  his  precursors  developed  to 
a  high  degree,  but  that  he  also  introduced  a  considerable  number  of 

ip.    227.     2p.    227.     3p.    238.     ^p.    370.     sp.    339.     6p.    431.     7p.    436. 
8p.  600      9p.  240.     lOp.  502.     Up.  241.     i2p.  258.     i3p.  370.     i4p.  540. 

15p.  392.       16p.  453.       17p.  457.       18p.  480.       19p.  557.       20p.  457.       21p.  457. 
22p.    487.       23p.    604.       24p.    535.       25p.    538.       26p.    583.       27p,    535.       28p.    40. 


29p  474. 


27 


innovations  into  German  poetry.  He,  more  than  any  other  poet,  is 
the  landmark  separating  the  age  of  realism  from  the  age  of  romanti- 
cism'. 

The  language  of  Heine  is  not  only  characterized  by  simplicity,  but 
also  by  the  introduction  of  every-day  words  and  expressions.  The  poet 
does  not  hesitate  to  use  the  polite  form  "Sie"2,  nor  does  he  shrink  from 
using  French  expressions  extensively  employed  by  the  great  mass  of 
Germans  before  the  crusade  against  the  "Fremdwort"  set  in,  such  as 
"spendabel,  kapabel,  ennuyiert,  passabel,  aimabel''^.  He  has  the  au- 
dacity to  introduce  vulgar  phrases:  "Es  lachten  selbst  die  Mumien, 
dass  sie  schier  zu  bersten  dachten",  or  "hoben  wieder  ihre  Lache"*. 
In  "Erleuchtung"5  he  uses  "Maul,  wegstibitzen,  Wanst  laben".  Still 
other  examples  are  to  be  found  in  "Der  Kaiser  von  China"  6,  where  we 
find  "Duckmauser,  trockner  Taps,  den  Raps  haben",  or  in  "An  den, 
Nachtwachter"7.  where  the  play  on  v/ords  "Maulheld-Maul  halt"  oc- 
curs. At  times  it  cannot  be  denied,  Heine's  phrases  are  not  merely 
profane,  but  obscene. 

A  glance  at  only  a  few  poems  of  Heine  will  give  us  an  idea  of  his 
realism.  In  "Heimkehr  3"^  it  is  the  detailed  account  of  the  landscape 
with  the  whistling  boy,  the  oxen,  the  maids  bleaching  the  wash,  and 
the  sentinel  walking  up  and  down,  which  attracts  our  interest.  For 
contrast  we  may  regard  his  realistic  picturing  of  interiors,  as  in  "Die 
Heimkehr  28"9,  where  love  of  excitement,  poverty,  and  bad  associ- 
ates are  shown  to  be  the  cause  of  the  downfall  of  many  young  people. 
The  following  poem,  "Die  Heimkehr" lo,  is  no  less  remarkable  for  its 
realism.  It  is  raining,  snowing,  and  stormy  on  the  streets:  the  aged 
mother  brings  flour,  eggs,  and  butter  from  the  store  in  order  to  bake  a 
cake  for  her  lazy,  grown  up  daughter  ("Die  liegt  zu  Haus  im  Lehn- 
stuhl  und  b.linzelt  schlafrig  ins  Licht").  Among  Heine's  most  realistic 
poems  is  the  one  in  which  he  tells  of  his  visit  to  the  family  of  his  former 
sweetheart!  1;  they  greet  him  in  a  friendly  way,  ask  about  his  health, 
tell  him  that  he  has  not  changed,  although  his  face  has  grown  paler. 
He  inquires  about  the  relatives,  the  little  dog,  and  his  former  sweet- 
heart, who,  as  he  heard,  is  just  recovering  from  childbirth.  He  gives 
his  best  regards  and  reflects  how  much  the  little  girl  in  the  family  re- 

'See  Theobald  Ziegler's  "Die  geistigen  und  socialen  Stromungen  des 
neunzehnten  Jahrhunderts",  Berlin,  1901,  pp.  189-194.  ^Ud.  used  for 
Heine:  Leipsic  and  Vienna,  n.d.  Bibliographisches  Institut.,  v.  I,  unless 
otherwise  stated.  First  reference  to  "Traumbilder  3",  p.  16.  ^"i^y- 
risches  Intermezzo  28",  p.  76.  ^"Rhampsenit",  p.  329.  ^p.  313. 
6p.  313.  7p.  315.  8p.  96.  9p.  108.  lOp.  109.  (No.  29).  ii"Die  Heim- 
kehr 6",  p.  98. 

28 


sembles  her  elder  sister,  his  former  sweetheart.  In  "Die  Heimker  38" i 
we  see  the  children  playing  with  the  neighbor's  cat  in  the  chicken  coop. 
The  children  talk  like  their  elders,  about  the  growing  wickedness  of  the 
world  and  the  high  cost  of  living  ("Wie  Lieb'  und  Treu'  und  Glauben 
verschwunden  aus  der  Welt,  und  wie  so  teuer  der  KafFee,  und  wie  so 
rar  das  Geld!"),  "Gotterdammerung"^  again  gives  us  an  example  of 
outdoor,  although  urban,  realism.  People  are  flocking  to  the  environs 
of  the  town  on  a  fine  afternoon  in  May:  "Die  Manner  ziehn  die  Nan- 
kinghosen  an  und  Sonntagsrock'  mit  goldnen  Spiegelknopfen ;  die  Frauen 
kleiden  sich  in  Unschuldweiss ;  Jiinglinge  krauseln  sich  den  Friihlings- 
schnurrbart;  Jungfrauen  lassen  ihre  Busen  wallen;  die  Stadtpoeten 
stecken  in  die  Tasche  Papier  und  Bleistift  und  Lorgnett'  ".  In  "Heim- 
kehr  5"^  a  story  is  suggested  by  the  description  of  an  interior.  "Auto- 
da-fe"*  tells  how  the  poet  watches  wilted  violets,  dusty  locks  of  hair,  a 
faded  ribbon,  and  half-torn  letters,  souvenirs  of  a  former  love,  burn  in 
the  grate.  "Meeresstille"^  shows  the  boatman  sleeping  near  the  rudder 
of  the  ship,  the  boy  with  the  clothes  soiled  by  tar  is  mending  the  sail. 
"Hinterm  Schmutze  seiner  Wangen  spriiht  es  rot,  wehmiitig  zuckt  es 
um  das  breite  Maul".  The  poem  "Zwei  Ritter"^  brings  in  the  wash- 
woman: "Audi  dieselbe  Henriette  wascht  fur  beide  edle  Polen;  trallernd 
kommt  sie  jeden  Monat, — um  die  Wasche  abzuholen".  A  little  later 
we  read:  "Sitzen  heute  am  Kamine,  wo  die  Flammen  traulich  flackern; 
draussen  Nacht  und  Schneegestober  und  das  Rollen  von  Fiakern". 
In  "Alte  Rose"  7  the  realism  of  Heine  receives  a  cruel  touch  when  a 
woman,  who  has  grown  old  enough  to  show  signs  of  age,  is  told:  "Allzu 
hart  die  Borsten  sind,  die  des  Kinnes  Warzchen  zieren — geh  ins  Kloster, 
liebes  Kind,  oder  lasse  dich  rasieren". 

In  subject  matter,  no  less  than  in  expression,  Heine  has  been  the 
"enfant  terrible"  of  German  poetry,  and  in  many  cases  the  introduc- 
tion of  disagreeable  things  has  not  taken  place  because  of  a  love  for 
reality,  but  rather  to  shock  or  amuse  the  reader.  It  would  be  entirely 
wrong,  however,  to  carry  this  assertion  too  far.  "Wahrhaftig"^  takes 
issue  with  the  conventional  list  of  poetic  subjects,  declaring  them  to  be 
too  limited  in  scope  to  cover  real  life:  "Doch  Lieder  und  Sterne  und 
Blumelein,  und  Aeuglein  und  Mondglanz  und  Sonnenschein,  wie  sehr 
das  Zeug  auch  gefallt,  so  macht's  doch  noch  lang'  keine  Welt".  And 
whatever  the  intentions  of  Heine  may  have  been,  there  can  be  little 

ip.  113.     2p.  135.     3p.97,     4p.394.     sp.  174,     6p.  353.     7p.  414.     sp.  55. 

29 


doubt  that  his  audacity  in  regard  to  subject  and  expression  has  accom- 
plished much  in  freeing  German  poetry  from  the  fetters  of  convention- 
alism; only  the  complete  abandonment  of  the  latter  has  made  natural- 
ism possible.  Among  the  striking  things  mentioned  in  the  poems  of 
Heine  are:  tight  shoes  and  cornsi,  the  evil  effects  of  the  "morning  after"^, 
colics,  urinary  troubles,  hemorrhoids,  cramps,  salivation^,  a  girl  who  has 
not  washed  her  neck^,  a  stable  wench  smelling  of  manure^,  chewing  to- 
bacco and  sea-sickness^,  a  dog  which  has  the  mange'',  people  blowing 
their  noses^,  women  snoring  in  bed^,  the  duel  with  a  bed-bug^o,  the  can- 
canii,  licei2,  stars  reflected  in  the  mud  puddles  of  Paris^^,  syringesi*,  bad 
odorsi5;  a  negro  putting  out  his  tongue'^.  The  poet  goes  so  far  as  to  say 
that  the  streets  of  Hamburg  are  offensive  to  the  sense  of  smell •  7.  In 
"Erinnerung  an  Hammonia"'8  we  read:  "Frauen,  die  gefiihlvoll  sind, 
kiissen  manchem  armen  Kind  sein  Rotznaschen",  and  "SchutzgSttin 
Hammonia  folgt  dem  Zug  inkognita,  stolz  bewegt  sie  die  enormen  Mas- 
sen  ihrer  hintern  Formen".  In  "Das  Kind''^^  ^e  find  the  passage:  "Es 
windet  sich  ein  Blibelein  von  deiner  Nabelschnur". 

Heine  has  created  an  atmosphere  of  intense  realism  in  many  of  his 
ballads,  especially  in  the  later  ones.  This  is  often  accomplished  by 
skillful  insertion  of  realistic  details.  In  "Der  arme  Peter"20  the  poor  re- 
jected suitor  bites  his  finger  nails  in  despair;  "Das  Schlachtfeld  bei 
Hastings" 21  depicts  the  mutilated  bodies  of  the  slain  warriors;  among 
these  the  king  is  discovered  by  the  marks  left  by  the  teeth  of  his  be- 
loved one  upon  his  neck.  "Walkuren"22  thus  describes  the  entry  of  the 
victor  into  a  city:  "Hei!  da  bollert's  von  den  Wallen,  Zinken  und  Trom- 
peten  gellen,  Glockenklang  erfiillt  die  Luft,  und  der  Pobel  Vivat!  ruft". 
Heine  also  compares  the  unknown  with  the  known  in  order  to  create  a 
realistic  atmosphere:  in  "Vitzliputzli"23  the  edifices  of  the  Aztecs  are 
compared  to  "Kollossale  Bauwerk-Monstren,  die  wir  schauen  auf  den 
Bildern  unseres  Britten  Henry  Martin".  The  birds  of  the  tropics  are 
compared  to  chatting  and  coffee-drinking  women. 

i"Der  Ex-Nachtwachter",  p.  404.  2"K-Jammer",  p.  411.  3"Vermach- 
niss",  p.  429.  ^"Liebeslieder  34",  v.  II,  p.  19.  5"Kpilog",  v.  II,  p.  110. 
6"Unsere  Marine",  v.  II,  p.  175.  ^"Unstern",  p.  270.  8"Neuer  Friihl- 
ing  44",  p.  222.  ^"Yolante  und  Marie  3",  p.  242.  io"Atta  Troll",  v.  II, 
p.  373.  Hid.,  V.  II,  p.  355.  i2id.,  v.  II,  p.  356.  i^id.,  v.  II,  p.  359. 
i4id.,  V.  II,  p.  365.  i5id.,  V.  II,  p.  370.  i6id.,  v.  II,  p.  372.  i7"Der 
Tannhauser",  p.  251.  isv.  II,  p.  215.  i9p.  311.  20p.  37.  2ip.  339. 
22p.  338.     23p.  380. 

30 


The  ballads  of  Goethe,  Schiller,  and  Heine  display  certain  funda- 
mental contrasts  in  spirit  that  invite  attention.  Goethe's  ballads  em- 
body delicate  lyrical  sentiment  ("Der  Fischer",  Erlkonig")  or  give  po- 
etic expression  to  some  thought  ("Der  Schatzgraber",  "Der  Gott  und 
die  Bajadere").  Schiller  seems  to  have  aimed  at  dramatic  effects  in 
his  ballads  ("Die  Kraniche  des  Ibykus",  "Die  Biirgschaft",  etc.).  But 
the  later  Heine  appears  to  be  chiefly  bent  upon  creating  an  intensely 
realistic  impression.  It  will  be  seen  that  some  of  the  maturer  ballads 
of  Heine  are  told  with  great  care  for  detail  and  at  great  length'. 

Frequently  Heine  has  chosen  to  reproduce  life  in  a  grotesque,  exag- 
gerated way.  This  is  very  evident  in  the  description  of  the  primary 
school  and  the  teacher  in  "Citronia"2.  The  latter  tendency  is  closely 
connected  with  his  love  of  satirizing.  Among  his  most  realistic  satirical 
poems  are  probably  those  directed  against  higher  society:  "Hoffart"^, 
"Der  Philanthrop"*.  He  has  also  successfully  satirized  the  aesthetical 
tea  parties  of  his  day 5.  His  most  bitter  satires  are  those  directed  against 
certain  conditions  in  Germany:  "Klagelied  eines  altdeutschen  Jiing- 
lings"6,  "Die  Menge  tut  es"^,  etc.  The  poem  "Zwei  Ritter"8  must  also 
be  accepted  as  a  satire.  Other  poems  of  this  order  are  less  concrete,  and 
attack  certain  aspects  of  life  in  general^. 

The  German  lyric  probably  owes  much  of  the  sincerity  and  openness 
with  which  erotic  subject  are  handled  to  Heine.  Here  is  the  source  of 
the  "Dirnenlyrik",  which  again  appears  in  Eduard  Grisebach  and  some 
of  the  more  recent  poets.  Poems  like  12  and  15  of  the  "Lyrische  In- 
termezzo"'o,  are  addressed  to  prostitutes.  The  later  Heine  has  occasion- 
ally introduced  questionable  elements  of  society  into  his  poems".  As 
yet,  however,  there  is  no  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  poet  to  put  himself 
into  the  place  of  the  fallen  girl  and  to  see  life  through  her  eyes  as  Wede- 
kind  has  done  in  "Use" '2, 

The  personal  note  is  much  stronger  in  Heine  than  in  many  of  the 
poets  preceding  him,  for  a  large  part  of  his  poetry  deals  with  his  own 
personal  experiences.  He  is  very  specific  in  his  references.  Note,  for 
instance,  in  "Der  weisse  Elefant"i3  the  "Kreditbrief  auf  Rothschild 
fr^res  in  der  Rue  Lafitte".    This  specific  tendency  is  also  very  marked  in 

'Especially  "Vitzliputzli",  p.  373,  "Bimini",  p.  125;  "Jehuda  ben  Ha.- 
evy",  p.  437.  2v;  II,  p.  82.  3p.  293.  ^y.  II,  p.  121.  5" Lyrisches  In- 
termezzo 50",  p.  84.  6p.  281.  7v.  II,  p.  198.  »j>.  353.  ^'Xumpen- 
tum",  p.  418.  lopp.  70  and  71.  ""Pomare",  p.  345.  i2see  Wedekind's 
"Die  vier  Jahreszeiten" .     '^p.  331. 

31 


"Gedachtnissfeier"!,  where  persons  and  places  are  specifically  mentioned. 
The  "Zeitgedichte"2  naturally  abound  in  references  to  contemporary 
events. 

The  reaction  against  romanticism  is  characteristic  of  the  whole  mid- 
dle of  the  nineteenth  century,  but  while  most  of  Heine's  contemporaries 
are  poets  who  have  broken  away  from  that  cult,  totally  or  partially, 
Heine  appears  as  a  poet  engaged  in  rudely  awakening  himself  from  his 
own  romantic  dreams.  The  most  popular  example  of  this  sudden  change 
of  mood  is  probably  "Seegespenst"^,  where  the  captain  exclaims  to  the 
romantic  poet:  "Doktor,  sind  Sie  des  Teufela?"  In  "Der  Apollogott"* 
the  beautiful  antique  vision  of  Apollo  and  the  Muses,  which  the  nun 
in  the  convent  has,  is  explained  in  a  most  prosaic  way;  instead  of  the 
Olympian  deity  and  his  following,  the  boat  going  down  the  Rhine  is 
carrying  a  young  good-for-nothing  from  the  ghetto  of  Amsterdam,  who 
has  organized  a  number  of  girls  of  questionable  character  into  a  travel- 
ing theatrical  troop,  which  the  poor  nun  has  mistaken  for  Apollo  and 
the  Muses.  In  "Die  Naclit  auf  dem  Drachenfels"^  we  read:  "Wir  sahn 
den  Burggeist  auf  dem  Turme  lauern,  viel  dunkle  Ritterschatten  uns 
umschauern,  viel  Nebelfraun  bei  uns  voriiberfiiegen" ;  but  the  poet  ends: 
"doch  leider  bracht  ich  den  Schnupfen  und  den  Husten  mit  nach  Hause". 
He  makes  fun  of  his  own  love  poetry  in  "Die  Heimkehr  42 "6,  where  he 
says  to  himself:  "Was  soil  es  niitzen,  stets  das  alte  Lied  zu  leiern? 
Willst  du  ewig  briitend  sitzen  auf  den  alten  Liebes-Eiern?"  The  highly 
romantic  chapters  XVIII,  XIX,  and  XX  of  "Atta  Troll"  are  followed 
by  the  disillusioning  chapter  XXI,  where  Heine  tells  how  he  was  drenched 
to  the  skin  in  a  cloudburst.  In  another  passage  of  the  same  poem  the 
author  laments  over  the  waning  of  romantic  idealism,  but  realizes  that 
the  loss  is  irretrievable,  since  times  have  changed-'. 

The  break  with  romanticism  has  led  to  a  humorous  treatment  of 
romantic  subjects  and  to  the  caricaturing  of  the  mythological  interpre- 
tation of  nature.  Heine  has  absolutely  burlesqued  a  mediaeval  legend 
in  "Der  Tannhauser''^.  The  Christian  heaven  is  repeatedly  ridiculed^. 
In  "Unser  Grab  erwarmt  der  Ruhm"io  he  really  pokes  fun  at  all  heroic 
idealism.  In  "Die  Heimkehr  39"ii  we  read:  "Doch  jetzt  ist  alles  wie 
verschoben,  das  ist  ein  Drangen!  eine  Not!  gestorben  ist  der  Herrgott 
oben,  und  unten  ist  der  Teufel  tot.    Und  alles  schaut  so  gramlich  triibe, 

ip.  423.  2p.  p301-319.  3p.  175.  4p.  343.  Sy.  II,  p.  64.  6p.  116. 
7chapter  XXVII.  Sp.  245.  9"Fromme  Warnung",  p.  420,;  'Himmel- 
fahrt",  V.  II,  p.  217;  "Die  Heimkehr  66",  p.  125.  lOy.  II,  p.  HO.  np. 
114. 

32 


so  krausverwirrt  und  morsch  und  kalt,  und  ware  nicht  das  bisschen 
Liebe,  so  gab'  es  nirgends  einen  Halt". 

Going  hand  in  hand  with  the  break  with  the  old  idealism,  we  have 
an  increased  importance  attached  to  material  well-being,  eating,  drink- 
ing, etc.  Among  many  other  examples  we  might  refer  to  chapter  XXIII 
of  "Deutschland"  as  especially  striking.  In  "Lyrisches  Intermezzo 
27"!  we  find:  "Du  gabest  mir  Trank  und  Speise,  und  hast  mir  Geld  ge- 
borget,  und  hast  mich  mit  Wasche  versorget,  und  mit  dem  Pass  fiir  die 
Reise". 

The  objective  serenity  of  mind,  which  the  poet  acquired  through  his 
heroic  struggle  with  disappointments,  prejudices,  and  long  sickness,  has 
led  to  that  humor  which  accompanied  Heine's  despair  to  the  bitter 
end.  Consequently  the  poet  has  risen  above  the  conventional  distinc- 
tion between  comic  and  tragic,  and  has  faced  reality  as  it  is^. 

From  the  ashes  of  the  old  idealism,  which  sought  something  "higher" 
or  "loftier"  than  the  real  world,  there  arose  like  a  phoenix  the  new 
spirit,  which  seeks  to  unite  the  poetic  and  the  fanciful  with  the  real  and 
commonplace.  For  the  real  and  deep-seated  idealism  can  not  be  ex- 
tinguished. In  "Gesprach  auf  der  Paderborner  Heide"^,  after  awaken- 
ing himself  from  a  number  of  his  own  romantic  fancies,  the  poet  ends: 
"Nun,  mein  Freund,  so  magst  du  lachen  iiber  des  Phantasten  Frage! 
Wirst  du  auch  zur  Tauschung  machen,  was  ich  fest  im  Busen  trage?" 
In  chapter  VI  of  "Deutschland"  Heine  has  been  able  to  introduce  the 
imaginative  into  a  realistic  setting.  Even  the  (supposed)  introduction 
of  the  syphilitic  scourge  from  the  New  World  to  the  Old  is  rendered 
poetic  in  "Vitzliputzli"*. 

Heine's  myth-creating  ability  also  moves  along  realistic  and  humor- 
ous lines.  "Frau  Sorge"5  is  pictured  as  an  ugly  old  woman  who  uses 
snuff  and  blows  her  nose.  The  rough  sea  is  likened  to  a  sailor  who  is 
putting  on  his  trousers^;  the  north  wind  is  a  disgruntled  person  (stor- 
riger  Griesgram)  who  is  lying  flat  on  his  stomach^;  the  clouds  are  the 
gray  daughters  of  the  air,,  who  laboriously  haul  water  in  buckets  of 
mists ;  the  glowing,  setting  sun  is  the  red  nose  of  the  drunken  world 
spirit^.  The  most  striking  poems  of  this  kind  are  "Sonnenuntergang"io, 
where  the  simile  of  an  unhappy  marriage  and  divorce  is  applied  to  the 
sun  and  moon,  and  "Untergang  der  Sonne" n,  where  the  sun,  a  gayly 
dressed  and  handsome  young  woman,  has  entered  into  a  loveless  and 

ip.  75.  2"Misere",  v.  II,  p.  89.;  'Vermachtniss",  p.  429.  3p.  53. 
4p.  373.  5p.  424.  6"Die  Heimkehr  10",  p.  100.  7"Die  Nacht  am 
Strande",  p.  166.  8"Der  Schiffbriichige",  p.  181.  9"ini  Hafen",  p.  191. 
lop.  164.     lip.  183. 

33 


unhappy  marriage  with  the  sea,  the  latter  being  represented  as  an  old 
man.  The  quarrels  of  the  latter  couple  are  the  cause  of  the  storms. 
In  "Die  Nacht  am  Strande"i,  an  extremely  realistic  poem,  the  poet 
likens  himself  to  the  gods  of  pagan  antiquity. 

On  the  whole,  nature  does  not  play  a  very  important  part  in  the 
poetry  of  Heine,  although  it  would  be  impossible  to  ignore  his  extreme- 
ly realistic  description  of  a  boat  ride  at  sea  during  the  night  in  "Nacht- 
liche  Fahrt"2.  He  also  describes  sad  and  rainy  landscapes  in  the  late 
fall3,  and  rainy,  disagreeable  weather  in  the  city*. 

In  Heine's  "Die  schlesischen  Weber" ^  we  have  marked  socialistic 
tendencies;  the  misery  of  the  weavers  is  referred  to,  and  the  rich  and 
powerful  are  blamed  for  the  state  of  affairs.  The  stupid  carelessness 
and  indifference  of  the  classes  of  society  that  are  better  off  toward  the 
starving  poor  is  satirized  in  "Jammertal''^.  "Pferd  und  Esel"^  is  a  re- 
flection on  the  changing  times  and  the  substitution  of  the  steam  en- 
gine for  horse  power. 

In  connection  with  Heine  it  might  be  well  to  note  that  at  least  one 
other  member  of  the  young  German  movement  was  a  pronounced 
realist:  Franz  Dingelstedt^. 

Like  Heine,  Lenau  also  laments  the  passing  away  of  the  old  romantic 
spirit,  but  while  the  former  regards  the  changing  trend  of  the  times 
with  the  eyes  of  a  humorist,  Lenau  is  plunged  into  profound  sadness 
which  approaches  melancholy.  "Reise-Empfindung"^  is  typical  in  show- 
ing how  the  sweet  dreams  of  the  imagination  are  rudely  destroyed  by 
reality.  The  poet  repeatedly  laments  the  loss  of  youthful  idealism; 
what  once  appeared  idealistic  and  romantic  has  now  given  away  to  a 
colorless,  matter-of-fact  way  of  regarding  life.  This  is  expressed  in  at 
least  three  poems:  "Einst  und  Jetzfio,  Die  Jugendtraume"Ji,  and  "Die 
Felsenplatte"i2.  "Doch  weh!  ihm  (dem  Jungling)  naht  mit  eisern  schwer- 
em  Gange  die  Wirklichkeit",  we  read  in  "Die  Jugendtraume".  The 
idea  of  the  transitoriness  of  all  things  also  has  a  firm  hold  on  the  poet's 
mindi3.    The  poet  has  broken  with  the  old  faith  in  immortality  J*;  he 

ip.  166.  2p.  369.  3"Neuer  Friihling  42-43",  p.  221.  ^"Neuer  Friihl- 
ing  44",  p.  222.  V.  II,  p.  177.  ^v.  II,  p.  124.  7v.  II,  p.  156.  Sed. 
used  for  Dingelstedt:  Berlin,  1877,  v.  VIII.  "Droben  ist  Tee,  droben 
ist  Ball",  p.  14;  "Themsefahrt",  p.  179;  "Auf  dem  Morgengang,  Hyde- 
park  entlang",  p.  228;  " Nacht wachters  Weltgang"  and  "Nachtwachters 
Stilleben"  are  generally  speaking,  realistic,  ^ed.  used  for  Lenau: 
Kiirschner's  Deutsche  National-Literatur,  Berlin  and  Stuttgart,  n.d 
"Reise-Empfindung",  p.  40.  JOp.  64.  np.  65.  »2p.  66.  i3"Vergang- 
lichkeit",  p.  90.     H"Veranderte  Welt",  p.  376. 

34 


also  emphasizes  the  cruelty  of  nature  in  "Aus!"'  and  "Die  nachtliche 
Fahrt"2,  and  is  thus  far  away  from  the  old  idealistic  conception  of  na- 
ture which  is  still  characteristic  of  Eichendorff. 

And  Lenau  is  a  strikingly  realistic  nature  poet.  To  be  sure,  he  doies 
not  analyze  nature  into  its  minute  details  like  Annette  von  Droste- 
Hiilshoff,  and  it  is  therefore  difficult  to  point  to  any  striking  innova- 
tion which  he  has  introduced  into  his  descriptions  of  nature,  unless  it  is 
to  his  mention  of  the  moon  appearing  between  the  horns  of  an  ox^. 
But  his  descriptions  of  nature  are  far  more  concrete  than  those  of  any 
poet  preceding  him.  Nearly  all  of  his  nature  poetry  would  bring  out 
this  fact,  and  especially  such  poems  as  "Abendheimkehr",*  "Herbstge- 
fuhl"5,  "Stimme  des  Regens"^,  "Auf  eine  hollandische  Landschaft"^,  etc. 
Poems  like  'An  die  Biologen''^  and  "Niichterner  Blick"^  will  serve  to 
show  that  Lenau' s  mind  has  been  directed  to  modem  science. 

The  comparisons  which  the  poet  draws  between  nature  and  real  life 
are  sometimes  quite  new.  In  "Himmelstrauer"io  the  bush  swaying  back 
and  forth  is  likened  to  the  restle  s  sick  person  who  tosses  back  and  forth 
on  his  bed.  The  beech  forest  in  autumn  is  compared  to  the  sick  person 
who  is  preparing  to  die,  in  "Herbstgefiihl"!'. 

The  language  of  Lenau  is  not  so  simple  as  that  of  some  other  poets, 
but  it  is  far  from  being  conventionally  poetic.  The  real  folk-song  spirit 
with  its  simplicity  is  foreign  to  him,  and  when  he  tries  to  attain  the 
latter  he  failsi2.  But  it  is  to  be  noted  that  he  sings  to  his  guitar,  and  not 
to  his  lyrei3. 

Like  all  great  realists,  Lenau  can  portray  the  background  for  his  ly- 
rical moods  with  great  vividness:  "Es  kracht  der  Schnee  von  meinen 
Tritten,  es  dampft  mein  Hauch,  es  klirrt  mein  Bart"'*,  or  "An  der  mor- 
schen  Diele  nur  reget  sich  der  kleine  Nager,  und  es  pickt  die  Pendel- 
uhr"J5.  He  also  introduces  minor  realistic  details:  in  "Der  ewige  Jude"'^ 
the  slain  buck  which  is  carried  home  by  the  hunter  still  holds  some  herbs 
between  its  teeth. 

Occasionally  we  find  Lenau  inspired  by  trivial,  every-day  objects 
which  remind  us  somewhat  of  Riickert.  He  writes  a  poem  about  the 
question  whether  the  children  or  some  domestic  animal  has  robbed  the 

ip.  125.  2p.  230.  3"Das  Dilemma",  p.  372.  4p.  26.  5p.  68.  6p.  274. 
7p.  373.  8p.  285.  9p.  370.  lOp.  147.  iip.  249.  i2"Der  Jager",  p.  300. 
13" An  meine  Guitarre",  p.  69.  J4"Winternacht",  p.  53.  i5"in  der 
Krankheit",  p.  88.     i^p.  207. 

35 


pantry  of  its  contents  i;  he  also  writes  poems  about  a  lost  thimble^,  an 
old  leaf  which  is  blown  in  through  the  open  window^,  his  pipe*,  a  skull 
in  his  rooms,  a  man  giving  his  horse  the  spurs'^,  but  he  never  becomes 
trivial  to  the  same  extent  that  Riickert  does. 

In  several  instances  Lenau  has  shown  himself  to  be  a  realistic  por- 
trayer  of  interiors,  especially  in  "Der  ewige  Jude"^;  here  we  see  a  low 
room,  an  old  man,  the  son  cleaning  the  gun,  the  woman  cooking,  and 
the  children  impatiently  sitting  at  the  table  and  waiting  for  supper. 
The  decorations  of  the  walls  are  described,  and  later  in  the  same  poem 
the  illusion  of  reality  is  strengthened  when  we  read:  "vorbei  war  Sturm 
und  Regen,  nur  draussen  hort'  ich  noch  die  Tannen  triefen''^.  "Der 
offene  Schrank"^  is  an  extremely  realistic  poem  dealing  with  interior 
life;  the  condition  of  the  room  as  it  was  left  by  the  departure  of  the 
mother  is  carefully  described,  the  open  prayer-book  as  well  as  the  rest 
of  her  breakfast,  which  she  was  unable  to  eat,  are  named.  The  poem 
"Der  Hagestolz"io  also  introduces  us  to  an  interior. 

Lenau  is  not  as  openly  hostile  to  the  steam  railroad  as  Kerner,  but 
he  is  only  half  reconciled  to  it^.  He  does  not  emphasize  the  romance  of 
traveling  by  rail  as  Anastasius  Griin  does  in  "Poesie  des  Dampfes"'^. 
"Am  Rhein"i3  mentions  the  steamboat. 

In  spite  of  his  aristocratic  blood,  Lenau  is  interested  in  simple  folk. 
Like  Wordsworth  he  believes  that  the  ideal  existence  is  that  of  the  simple 
folk  near  the  soil;  in  "Weib  und  Kind"i4  he  tells  about  meeting  a  peasant 
woman  and  her  daughter  in  the  mountains  and  says:  "Lang  blickt'  ich 
ihnen  nach,  bis  sie  verschwunden.  Und  dass  ein  Leben  schon  und 
gliicklich  nur,  wenn  es  sich  schmiegt  an  Gott  und  die  Natur,  hab'  ich 
auf  jenem  Berge  tief  empfunden".  Among  other  poems  dealing  with 
humbler  members  of  the  human  race  are  "Der  Postilion" i^,  "DerSchifTs- 
junge"i^"DerUnhold"'7^  "Diedrei  Zigeuner"i8^  and"Der  arme  Jude"''. 

Socialistic  tendencies  also  come  to  the  surface  in  Lenau' s  poetry 20. 
"Am  Grabe  eines  Ministers" 21  and  "Des  Teufels  Lied  vom  Aristokra- 
ten"22  are  sharp  attacks  on  the  ruling  classes. 

The  poem  "Das  Lied  vom  armen  Finken"23  treats  of  the  cruel  prac- 
tice of  putting  out  the  eyes  of  song  birds  in  order  to  improve  their 

i"Poetisches  Votum",  p.  419.  2"Der  Fingerhut",  p.  421.  3"Das  diirre 
Blatt",  p.  267.  4"Mein  Tiirkenknopf",  p.  302.  5"Der  Hagestolz",  p. 
303.  6"Z6gerung",p.  92.  7p,  203.  Sp.  206.  9p.3i3.  lOp.  303.  'i"An 
den  Friihling  1838",  p.  305.  i2ed.  of  Anastasius  Griin,  Berlin,  1907, 
V.  I,  p.  218.  i3p.  255.  i4p.  223.  i5p.  igo.  i6p.  195.  i7p.  431.  isp. 
229.  i9p.  379.  20"Begrabniss  einer  alten  Bettlerin",  p.  35.  2ip.  95. 
22p.  409.     23p.  307. 

36 


song.  "Marie  imd  Wilhelm"i  appears  to  be  a  picture  taken  from  real- 
ity. In  concluding  our  treatment  of  Lenau  we  may  mention  "Der 
Rekrut"2,  dealing  with  the  Hfe  of  the  soldier,  and  the  realistic  poem 
"Das  Kind  geboren,  die  Mutter  tot"3. 

The  analytical  and  objective  mind  of  the  scientist,  with  all  its  care 
for  minute  detail,  would  be  sure  to  recognize  a  kindred  spirit  in  the 
poetess  Annette  von  Droste-Hiilshoff,  who  will  now  be  discussed  be- 
cause of  the  difficulty  in  classifying  her  according  to  groups  or  schools 
of  poetry.  Naturally  near-sighted,  this  original  poetess  has  outdone  all 
previous  poets  in  regard  to  minute  observation  of  plant  and  animal  life, 
and  her  keen  sensibiHty  to  sounds  in  nature  that  would  escape  the 
notice  of  the  average  person. 

Annette's  knowledge  of  botany  and  zoology  was  very  unusual,  some 
of  her  poems  containing  so  much  detailed  mention  of  species  that  it  is 
hard  for  one  to  appreciate  them  to  their  full  extent  if  not  acquainted 
with  plant  and  animal  life.  "Die  Lerche"^  mentions  the  gentian,  the 
daisy,  the  sword-flag,  dodder-grass;  in  other  poems  we  find  mention  of 
the  dragon-fly,  the  diving-spider,  the  iris,  the  river-weed,  the  bearded 
loach,  the  carp,  the  trefoil,  the  pike^,  the  orange  speckled  toad,  the 
hedgehog,  the  broom,  the  juniper,  hair-grass^,  the  phalaena^,  the  mignon- 
nettes,  the  elder,  the  meadow-saffron^,  etc. 

Going  hand  in  hand  with  this  specific  tendency,  Annette  possesses  an 
oversensitiveness  to  outside  stimuli  which  is  almost  hysterical.  She  no- 
tices the  shadow  of  a  bird  flying  over  the  water lo,  she  hears  the  fly  strug- 
gling in  the  net,  the  berry  falling  to  the  ground  from  the  bush,  the 
beetle  crawling  in  the  herbage'^,  the  caterpillar  feasting  on  grassi2,  the 
fly  walking  on  trembling  paper '3,  she  feels  the  dust  of  a  destroyed  toad- 
stool settling  on  her  cheek,  also  darkness  touching  her  cheeks  like  fine 
rainO)'^  the  approaching  thunderstorm'^,  the  compressed  air  around  her 
face  and  chest'^.   Odors  are  also  taken  into  consideration;  the  poetess  not 

ip.  32.  2p.  429.  3p.  391.  4ed.  used  for  Annette  von  Droste-Hiilshoff: 
Ferdinand  Schoningh,  unless  otherwise  stated,  v.  Ill;  Miinster  and 
Paderborn,  1885,  v.  II;  Paderborn,  1906,  v.  I,  part  II;  Paderborn,  1901, 
'  Die  Lerche",  p.  41.  5"Der  Weilier",  p.  58.  6"Das  Hirtenfeuer",  p.  83. 
7"  Der  Haidemann",  p.  87.  s"Ein  Sommertagstraum",  p.  203. 
9"Durchwachte  Nacht",  p.  316.  io"Der  Weiher  II".,  59  ii"Die  Jagd", 
p.  45.  i2"Im  Moose",  p.  113.  '3"Ein  Sommertagstraum",  p.  203. 
>*"Durchwachte  Nacht",  p.  316;  "Doppelganger",  p.  328.  ^^"Wm 
Sommertagstraum",  p.  203.     '^"Des  Arztes  Vermachtniss",  v.  II,  p. 

227. 

37 


only  mentions  the  odor  of  the  grass',  but  also  that  of  the  dust  on  the 
leaves  of  trees2,  of  turpentine^,  and  of  the  moor*. 

No  poet  before  Annette  has  probably  ever  employed  such  a  varying 
vocabulary  in  order  to  describe  sounds:  "Da  krimmelt,  wimmelt  es 
im  Haidgezweige",  "der  Kafer  schnurrt",  "die  Fliege  surrt"5,  "ich  hor' 
des  Stahles  Picken,  ein  Knistern",  "das  rieselnde  Rohr",  "wie  die  Aeste 
knattern"6,  "Ira  Grasse  knistert'  es,  als  ob  die  Grille  hiipfte,  im  Strauche 
fliistert'  es,  als  ob  das  Mauslein  schlupfte"^,  "an  seiner  SohleNadelnrau- 
schen"8,  "Horst  du  ein  Rieseln,  wie  die  Luft  der  Steppe  zarten  Staub 
entfiihret?  Und  ein  Gesausel,  wie  im  Glas  gefangner  Bremse  Fliigel  wis- 
pelt?  Vielleicht  'ne  Sanduhr,  die  verrinnt?  ein  Mauschen,  das  im  Kalke 
rispelt?"9. 

V 

-- '  If  we  accept  the  popular  opinion  that  naturalism  is  essentially  a  pref- 
erence for  the  less  agreeable  things  ih  life,  then  Annette  is  often  a  na- 
turalist, for  she  sometimes  describes  things  that  hitherto  would  not 
only  have  been  regarded  as  commonplace,  but  even  as  ugly.  In  "Das 
ode  Haus"  she  mentions  the  headless  body  of  a  dead  insect  hanging  in 
a  spider's  web,  rotten  substances  overgrown  by  fungi,  and  various  sorts 
of  rubbish,  as  a  piece  of  an  old  dog-collar'o.  Foul  smelling  morasses  are 
described  in  detail  on  a  number  of  occasions' '  and  especially  in  "Der 
Spiritus  familiaris  des  Rosstauschers"i2,  where  we  read  among  other 
similar  passages:  "Da  seitwarts  durch  Gerohres  Speer  erglanzt  des  Koi- 
kes Tintenbecken :  ein  wiister  Kiibel,  wie  getrankt  mit  schwefligen  As- 
phaltes  Jauche,  langbeinig  fiisselnd  Larvenvolk  regt  sich  in  Faden- 
schlamm  und  Lauche,  und  faule  Spiegel,  blau  und  griin,  wie  Regen- 
bogen  driiber  ziehn",  or,  preceeding  this:  "Hier  wuchern  Kress'  und 
Binsenwust,  Gewiirme  klebt  an  jedem  Halme,  Insektenwirbel  wimmelt 
auf  und  nieder  in  des  Mooses  Qualme",  and  again:  "Dort  steigt  die 
Wasserlilj'  empor,  dem  Fusstritt  lauschend  durch  die  Stille;  wen  sie 
verlockt  mit  ihrem  Schein,  der  hat  sein  letztes  Lied  gesungen;  drei 
Tage  suchte  man  das  Kind  umsonst  in  Kraut  und  Wasserbungen,  wo 
Egel  sich  und  Kanker  jetzt  an  seinen  bleichen  GUedchen  letzt".  In 
"Der  Tod  des  Erzbischofs  Hngelbert  von  Coln"'^  the  poetess  does  not 

i"Im  Grase",  p.  330.  2"Der  Santis",  p.  121.  3"Der  Spiritus  familiaris 
des  Rosstaucherss",  IV,  v.  II,  p.  378.  4"Der  Fundator",  v.  II,  p.  442. 
5"Die  Lerche",  p.  41.  6"Das  Hirtenfeuer",  p.  83.  7"Die  Verbannten", 
p.  12.  8''Der  Spiritus  familiaris  des  Rosstauschers",  v.  II,  p.  377, 
9id.,  V.  li,  p.  382.  lOp.  110.  ""Mein  Beruf",  p.  131;  "Der  Fundator", 
v.  II,  p.  442.     i2v.  II,  p.  379.     i3v.  II,  p.  421. 

38 


hesitate  to  mention  the  crow  and  the  worm  feasting  on  a  dead  body. 
She  repeatedly  refers  to  people  as  clearing  their  throaty  and  also  to 
people  coughing  and  spitting^. 

Commonplace  things  are,  of  course,  also  taken  into  consideration; 
among  other  objects  we  find  mention  of  rubber  shoes  in  "Dichters 
Naturgefuhl"3  and  of  scorched  soup  in  "Das  Hospiz  auf  dem  grossen 
vSankt  Bernhard"4.  But  Annette's  attitude  toward  every-day  things 
will  become  more  apparent  when  we  analyze  some  of  her  more  realistic 
poems.  Let  us  note,  in  the  meanwhile,  that  modern  inventions  are  re- 
ferred to:  in  "Die  Stadt  und  der  Dom"5  we  read  about  the  shrill  whistle 
of  the  steam  boat,  and  the  turning  of  the  boat's  wheel,  and  in  "Das 
Haus  in  der  Haide"6  about  the  distant  saw-mill,  the  noise  of  the  hammer, 
the  plane,  saw,  etc.  The  poetess  also  uses  geological  terms  on  several 
occasions;  thus  we  find  "gewalt'ge  Blocke,  rohe  Porphyrbrode"  in  "Der 
Hiinenstein"'',  while  "Die  Mergelgrube"8  abounds  in  terms  like  "Gneis, 
Spat,  Glimmer,  Porphyr,  Okerdruse,  Feuerstein,  Mergel,  etc." 

Through  this  minuteness  of  observation,  the  introduction  of  new  ex- 
pressions as  well  as  of  less  agreeable  and  more  commonplace  things  in- 
to her  poems,  Annette  has  become  one  of  the  foremost  realists  of  Ger- 
man poetry.  "Der  Prediger"  describes  the  church  service  in  a  most  re- 
alistic way9.  The  bell  is  rung  so  that  the  belfry  shakes,  and  the  birds 
in  the  vicinity  are  driven  from  their  nests.  Elderly  men  slowly  make 
their  way  through  the  crowds  with  canes,  spectacles,  and  mass  books, 
while  carriages  are  already  standing  in  line  at  the  entrance.  A  young 
woman  yawns  during  the  service,  a  young  man  inattentively  turns  the 
leaves  of  his  book,  but  in  the  evening  he  remarks  upon  the  fine  sermon 
in  the  theatre.  "Die  Vogelhutte"io  realistically  narrates  how  the  poetess 
was  marooned  in  a  small  shed  during  a  terrific  shower  which  prevented 
her  from  attending  a  tea-party  where  one  of  her  poems  was  to  be  read.  In 
"Der  Hiinenstein"  1 1  we  find  a  striking  and  realistic  comparison:  "So 
traumt'  ich  fort,  und  wie  ein  schlechtes  Buch,  ein  Pfennigs- Magazin 
uns  auf  der  Reise  von  Station  zu  Stationen  plagt,  hab'  zehnmal  Weg- 
geworfnes  ich  benagt  und  fortgeleiert  iiberdruss'ge  Weise".  This  poem 
ends  with  a  pronounced  romantic  disillusionment.  The  spectre  of  the 
gigantic  primitive  man  changes  into  a  rainstorm:  "Ein  Ruf,  ein  hiipfend 

»"Die  Mergelgrube",  p.  69.;  "Das  Hirtenfeuer",  p.  83.  2" Die  Krahen", 

p.  75.  3p.  251.  4v.  II,  p.  192.  5p.  6.  6p.  90.  7p.  63.  sp.  69.  9p.  17. 
lOp.  50.     up.  63. 

39 


Licht — es  schwankt  herbei,  und — 'Herr,  es  regnet' — sagte  mein  Lakai,  der 
ruhig  iibers  Haupt  den  Schirm  mir  streckte". 

There  is  no  more  realistic  description  of  a  hot,  oppressive  summer  af- 
ternoon preceding  a  thimdershower  than  "Ein  Sommertagstraum"  i :  "Im 
tiefen  West  der  Schwaden  grollte,  es  stand  die  Luft,  ein  siedend  Meer; 
an  meines  Fensters  Vorhang  rollte  die  Sonnenkugel,  gliih  und  schwer". 
The  headache,  drowsiness,  the  ringing  in  the  head,  and  the  indifference 
and  indolence  of  mind  which  causes  a  person  to  study  the  folds  in  the 
curtain  or  listen  to  the  blood  coursing  through  one's  veins,  all  these 
effects  of  the  summer  heat  are  described  in  the  unassuming  and  realis- 
tically simple  style  of  Annette;  mention  is  made  of  casual  noises  ("es 
schlich  am  Hag  ein  Rieseln  und  ein  Surren,  wie  flatternder  Libelle 
Strich"),  of  the  fragrance  of  the  mignonette,  the  presentiment  of  the 
approaching  thunderstorm,  and  a  slight  breeze  which  sets  a  piece  of 
paper  in  motion. 

A  similar  realism  prevails  in  "Durchwachte  Nacht"2.  Especially  note- 
worthy is  the  care  with  which  auditory  impressions  are  introduced:  dis- 
tant footsteps,  the  squeaking  of  bed-room  doors,  the  snorting  of  the 
horse  in  the  barn,  unexplainable  nocturnal  noises,  the  nightingale,  the 
owl,  part  of  the  crumbling  wall  which  drops  to  the  ground,  a  breeze, 
the  early  chirping  of  the  swallow,  the  crowing  of  the  rooster,  the  barn- 
door early  in  the  morning,  and  the  striking  of  the  clock  at  all  times  of 
the  night  serve  to  give  us  a  realistic  impression.  All  the  sensations  of 
semi-slumber  are  portrayed  with  utmost  realism:  "das  Geriist  des  Vor- 
hangs  scheint  sich  schaukelnd  zu  bewegen,  und  dort  das  Wappen  an 
der  Decke  Gips  schwimmt  sachte  mit  dem  Schlangeln  des  Polyps". 

"Neujahrsnacht"3  describes  a  street-scene  in  mid- winter.  The  forms 
of  street  lamps  and  other  objects  are  dimmed  by  the  falling  snow,  "und 
leise  knistert  es  im  Flaum",  the  breath  of  the  pedestrians  is  visible, 
the  snow  is  crushed  under  the  feet  of  the  passers  by  ("Die  Decke  kracht 
vom  schweren  Tritt"),  carriages  in  the  snow  storm  appear  like  gigantic 
fireflies;  a  number  of  types  are  pointed  out,  as  the  coughing  man  who 
trims  and  lights  the  lamps,  the  hussars  with  hoary  beards,  the  peasants, 
etc.    In  "Die  Schwestern"*  another  street  scene  is  described. 

"Des  alten  Pfarrers  Woche''^  describes  the  life  of  the  Catholic  coun- 
try clerg3^man  in  great  detail,  telling  exactly  what  constitutes  his  work 
and  interest  during  seven  days  of  the  week.  The  detailed  and  vivid 
description  of  the  blacksmith  and  his  shop  in  "Die  Schmiede"^  and 

ip.  201.     2p.  316,     3p.  239.     4v.  II,  p.  482.     sp.  272.     6p.  270. 

40 


"Feuer  (Die  Elemente)"i  is  remarkable.  The  first-named  poem  men- 
tions the  apple  tree  which  bears  fruit  on  one  side  but  stretches  its  branch 
on  the  other  side  into  the  blacksmith's  shop:  "Die  eine  Seite  voll  Ges- 
pinns,  Wurmfrass  und  Flockenharchen,  langt  mit  der  andern,  iippig  rot, 
er  in  die  Funkenreigen,  die  knatternd  aus  der  Schmiede  Schlot  wie 
Sternraketen  steigen — und  drunten  geht  es  Pink  und  Pank,  man  hort 
die  Flamme  pfeifen,  es  keucht  der  Balg  aus  hohler  Flank'  und  bildet 
Aschenstreif en ;  die  Kohle  knallt,  und  driiber  dicht — beugt  sich  das 
grimmige  Gesicht  des  russigen  Cyklopen.  Er  halt  das  Eisen  in  die 
Glut — es  knackt  und  spritzet  Funkenblut  und  dunstet  blaue  Schwehle". 

The  same  vivid  and  concrete  realism  which  is  easy  to  illustrate  by 
examples  but  hard  to  describe,  is  found  again  and  again  in  the  poems 
of  Annette.  In  "Der  Spiritus  familiaris  des  Rosstauschers"2  the  death 
of  the  horse  is  thus  described:  "Der  Tauscher  kniet  am  Pflastergrund, 
er  streicht  des  Rosses  heisse  Flanken,  von  des  Gebalkes  Sparren  lasst 
die  Leuchte  irre  Schatten  wanken;  bei  Gott,  es  lebt! — im  Aug'  ein 
Blitz! — es  schaudert,  zittert,  hiiben,  driiben,  dann  streckt  es  sich,  die 
Niistern  stehn,  vom  wilden  Schreie  aufgetrieben,  und  aus  den  Gliedern 
wirbelt  Dampf,  der  Lebenswarme  letzter  Kampf.  Der  Tauscher  kniet 
und  streichelt  fort — sacht  langt  die  Decke  er  herbei  und  schlagt  sie  um 
des  Tieres  Weichen,  dann  lasst  er  der  Laterne  Schein  ob  den  gespann- 
ten  Sehnen  streichen;  es  ist  vorbei,  kein  Odemhauch,  und  schon  ver- 
schwimmt  der  Flanken  Ranch".  Later  in  the  same  poem  the  dark  hori- 
zon is  compared  to  a  coalsieve^.  The  description  of  the  fire  is  also  ex- 
tremely realistic  and  concrete*. 

"Die  beschrankte  Frau"^,  which  tells  how  the  wife  who  has  been 
despised  by  her  husband  because  of  her  simplicity  of  mind  keeps  her 
husband  from  bankruptcy  by  sacrificing  her  savings,  is  a  picture  of 
real  life. 

Annette  has  also  introduced  this  realism  into  the  poems  dealing  with 
times  that  are  now  in  the  past.  We  must  guard  against  overlooking 
the  extremely  vivid  picture  of  Christ  in  Gethsemane  in  the  poem  "Geth- 
semane"6.  "Die  Liifte  schienen  Seufzer  nur  zu  saugen,  und  eine  Quelle 
murmelte  ihr  Weh";  then  we  have  the  passage  where  the  Savior  sees 
himself  crucified:  "Und  vor  dem  Heiland  stieg  das  Kreuz  empor;  dar- 
an  sah  seinen  eignen  Leib  er  hangen,  zerrissen,  ausgespannt;  wie  Stricke 
drangen  die  Sehnen  an  den  Gliedern  ihm  hervbr.     Die  Nagel  sah  er 

ip.  103.     2v.  II,  p.  365.     3v.  II,  p.  381.     ^v.  II,  p.  385.     Sp.  262.     6v.  I, 
part  II,  p.  54. 

41 


ragen  und  die  Krone  auf  seinem  Haupte,  wo  an  jedem  Dorn  ein  Blutes- 
tropfen  hing — und  aus  alien  Poren  drang  ihm  der  Schweiss". 

War  has  also  been  stripped  of  some  of  its  glamor  by  the  realistic 
sense  of  Annette.  In  "Walter"  •  the  soldiers  in  the  tired  army  are  bathed 
in  perspiration,  the  horses  covered  with  dust.  In  "Die  Schlacht  im 
Lohner  Bruch"2  the  arrival  of  a  small  troop  of  warriors  is  thus  des- 
scribed:  "Es  stampft  und  knackt,  es  schnaubt  und  klirrt,  dazwischen 
es  wie  Sensen  schwirrt— Nun  sind  sie  da,  ein  starker  Tross,  in  Eisen 
starrend  Mann  und  Ross.  Die  Riistung  wohl  des  Glanzes  bar  und 
manche  Klinge  schartig  war,  bevor  sie  kamen  hier  zur  Stell'.  Sie  spren- 
gen  an  den  Weiher  schnell,  dann  miihsam  beugend  iibern  Rand  das 
Wasser  schopfen  mit  der  Hand.  Und  tief  die  heissen  Niistern  tauchen 
die  Rosse,  Gras  und  Binsen  rauchen,  man  hort  in  heisren  Tonen  her- 
vor  die  miide  Seele  stohnen.  Dort  einer  klirrt  den  Rain  entlang, — ein 
andrer  halt  sein  schnaubend  Tier,  an  seinen  Hut  ein  Handschuh  steckt, 
— die  Federn  hangen  driiber  her,  geknickt,  von  roten  Tropfen  schwer". 

In  Annette's  ballads  this  realism  often  goes  hand  in  hand  with  a  love 
of  the  uncanny.  "Der  Graue"^  mentions  the  steam  engine  in  the  paper 
factory,  champagne  bottles,  wax  dripping  from  the  burning  tallow 
candle,  the  wind  howling  in  the  huge  chimney  of  the  factory,  etc.,  and 
in  the  midst  of  all  this  realistic  setting  the  supernatural  is  introduced 
very  effectively. 

Commonplace  expressions  are  not  so  often  employed  by  Annette,  al- 
though in  "Der  Strand wachter  am  deutschen  Meere  und  sein  Neffe  vom 
Lande"4  we  find  "Geisterjanhagel".  We  may  finally  note  Annette's 
compassion  with  the  poor  in  "Bettellied"^,  and  her  attempt  to  satirize 
the  modern  method  of  bringing  up  children  by  contrasting  the  irrev- 
erent attitude  of  modern  children  toward  their  parents  with  the  old 
patriarchal  family  tone  which  once  prevailed,  in  "Alte  und  neue  Kin- 
derzucht"6 

THE  SILVER  AGE 

It  might  be  questioned  whether  dialect  poets  such  as  Groth  or  Hebel 
should  be  discussed  in  a  dissertation  like  this,  since  dialect  poetry  is 
really  supposed  to  be  somewhat  apart  and  more  popular,  more  natural 
and  more  realistic  than  the  poetry  of  the  written  language.  It  must 
be  observed,  for  instance,  that  Groth' s  High  German  poems  are  much 
less  realistic  than  those  in  the  Low  German. 

iv.  II,  p.  53.     2v.  II,  p.  284.     3v.  II,  p.  455.     4p.  292.     ^v.  IV,  p.  365. 
6p.  33. 

42 


The  Low  German  dialect  poet  Groth  was  the  son  of  a  farmer  and 
miller.  His  father  was  not  in  favor  of  his  reading  books,  but  laid  great 
emphasis  upon  observation  of  nature  and  outdoor  work. 

Groth  possesses  many  realistic  qualities  which  we  have  already  ob- 
served in  Hebel.  Like  Hebel  he  reproduces  e very-day  speech  with 
great  exactness:  "Gau  to,  Jung!  stick  de  Fork  hier  in  de  Eer!  Man 
diichtig  deep!  sieh  so! — un  dar  de  anner!  Un  hier  de  Kniippel  daer  de 
Tinn! — De  Harken — Das  recht — man  so  schreeg  aewer  an  den  Torf- 
klot!"i.  The  natural  simplicity  of  language  and  expression  in  some  of 
the  shorter  poems  is  also  really  remarkable2.  His  care  in  describing 
gestures  goes  beyond  Hebel:  "Un  darbi  trock  he  an  sin  breden  Hot  un 
schov  em  inne  Nack  un  krau  den  Griskopp  un  rich  den  olen  krummen 
Riigg  toh6ch"3,  or  "De  Ole  rich  sik  langsam  inne  Hoch  un  wisch  den 
Sweet  vun  Nass  un  Pockennarben"*. 

Like  Hebel,  Groth  is  interested  in  all  sorts  of  types  belonging  to  the 
humbler  strata  of  society.  This  is  shown  by  poems  like  "Orgeldreier"5, 
"Kaneeljud"6,  "De  Kischer"7,  "De  M6ller"8,  "De  Melkdiern"?,  "De 
Krautfru"io,  "De  ole  Harfenistin"!'.  Remarkable  are  Groth' s  character 
sketches  and  his  description  of  certain  types,  as  of  the  dairy  maid  in 
"De  Melkdiern"  and  of  the  old  man  in  "Dat  Gewitter"i2.  Among  his 
character  sketches  we  may  refer  to  "Schitkraet"i3,  which  describes  a 
peculiar  conceited  individual  who  smokes  his  pipe  and  spits  from  the 
corner  of  his  crooked  mouth,  also  to  the  description  of  "de  Kaethners 
Saen"  in  "Dat  Schicksal"!*.  Groth  is  probably  one  of  the  first  to  refer 
to  smallpox  scars  (Pockennarben)  in  the  faces  of  individuals'^.  There 
is  surely  no  more  realistic  description  of  the  actions  of  a  dog  than  that 
in  "De  Fischtog  na  Fiel"i6. 

In  regard  to  nature  treatment,  Groth  also  is  specific  in  his  references 
to  various  plant  .and  animal  species.  He  mentions  many  plants  and 
birds  by  name,  thus  the  marsh  marigold 1 7,  the  nettle's,  the  common 

led.  used  for  Groth:  "Quickborn",  Hamburg,  1864.  In  case  of  longer 
poems  the  page  to  which  the  reference  actually  refers  is  added  in  paren- 
thesis, while  the  page  on  which  the  respective  poem  begins  is  given  with- 
out parenthesis.  Quotation  from  "Dat  Gewitter",  p.  154.  2"Min  An- 
nameder",  p.  3,  child  poetry  pp.  9-11.  3"Dat  Gewitter",  p.  154.  4"Ut 
Lenken  ward  en  Ked",  p.  181.(182).  sp.  5.  6p.  17.  7p.  20.  sp.  21. 
9p.  22.  lOp.  25.  Hp.  27.  i2p.  154.  i3p.  95.  Hp.  257(258).  i5"Va- 
dershus",  p.  179(181),  "Ut  Lenken  ward  en  Ked",  p.  181(182).  i6p. 
204(206).  i7"Heinri",  p.  172(173).  i8"Ut  Lenken  ward  en  Ked",  p. 
181(182). 

43 


daphne',  the  alder2,  the  ash^,  etc.  As  a  rule,  however,  he  has  not  the 
care  for  detail  of  Annette  von  Droste-Hiilshoff.  "Abendfreden"*  tells 
us  of  the  soft  rustling  sounds  of  nature  that  often  escape  the  attention 
of  the  casual  observer:  "Se  snackt  man  mank  de  Blaeder,  as  snack  en 
Kind  in  Slap,  dat  siind  de  Wegenleder  vaer  Koh  un  stille  Schap.  Nu 
liggt  dat  Dorp  in  Dunkeln  un  Newel  hangt  dervaer,  man  hort  man  eben 
munkeln  as  keem't  vun  Minschen  her".  The  description  of  the  ap- 
proaching thunderstorm  in  "Dat  Gewitter"5  js  probably  supreme  in  its 
realism:  "dat  ward  je  diistre  Nacht — wa  weer  dat  swul  un  briiddi,  un 
wa  de  Flegen  steken  daer  de  Striimp — Bi  Moldorp  un  int  Westen  ist 
noch  hell — in  Hasted  is  de  Thorn  man  kum  to  sehn — Dar  geit't  al  los! 
— Un  wa  dat  sus't!  Aha!  dat  siind  al  Hagel!  Wa  se  der  danzt! — 01  Na- 
wer  Springer  loppt  ok  al  in  Draf;  wat  makt  he  Been!  sieh  an!  he  kann 
nich  raewer — ".  This  is  but  a  striking  example  of  the  realistic  descrip- 
tion which  is  then  continued.  For  realism  in  nature  see  also:  "De 
Spinnwipp  glinsten  mank  de  Stoppeln,  de  Ossen  briillen  vun  de  Koppeln, 
dat  weer  so  still,  man  kunn  se  horn  noch  lisen  ut  de  widste  Feern;  de 
Wagens  klaetern  langs  den  Weg,  un  Stuff  un  Newel  steeg  to  hoch"^. 
The  marsh  is  most  realistically  described  in  "Unnermeel"^,  especially 
its  quietude  and  silence  which  is  only  interrupted  by  humming  bees, 
the  ticking  clock  in  the  house,  and  an  occasional  wagon  rattling  through 
the  country, 

Groth  seems  to  have  been  fond  of  hunting.  In  "Drees"8  he  tells  how 
he  likes  to  stroll  around  the  country  in  winter  with  a  gun,  mittens  on 
his  hands,  and  the  cap  over  his  ears;  "denn  knackert  dat  Is",  he  says. 
He  stops  at  the  tavern  of  "Frenz  Buhmann",  where  he  drinks  egg-flip, 
and  sits  near  the  cockle  stove,  while  the  sun  is  shining  into  the  window 
over  white  snow-covered  fields.  He  prefers  this  pleasure  to  that  of  the 
people  who  read  the  newspaper,  drink  tea  and  grog,  talk  politics,  and 
play  L'hombre  and  whist.  "De  Floth"^,  in  which  the  seashore  is  real- 
istically described,  also  starts  out  from  a  hunting  trip. 

Interiors  are  not  neglected  by  Groth,  "An  de  Maan"io  shows  us  the 
man  sitting  in  a  dark  room  about  to  light  his  pipe.  The  moon  shines 
through  the  window,  and  the  apples  are  baking  on  the  stove  ("un  hor 
min  braten  Appeln  griistern").    "Wihnachtabnd"»'  shows  us  the  winter 

ip,  181(182).  2"Heinri",  p.  172(173).  3"Peter  Kunrad",  p.  68(75). 
*p,  185.  5p.  154.  6"Rumpelkamer",  p.  105(118).  7p.  245.  sp.  99. 
9p.  100.     lOp.  28.     J2p.  31. 

44 


night,  when  it  is  hard  to  keep  the  room  warm  with  the  cockle  stove; 
the  old  man  is  referred  to  the  arm  chair,  the  girl  told  to  look  after  the 
stove  and  to  put  sand  on  the  clean  floor.  The  cold  weather  is  indicated 
by:  "Wa  knarrt  de  Snee".  This  poem  also  refers  to  the  suffering  of 
the  poor  in  winter.  "Grotmoder"'  is  also  very  realistic  in  language  and 
coloring:  "Grotmoder  niilt  inn  Laihnstohl  un  hollt  de  Huspostill.  Ik 
weet  ni  wat  de  Olsche  nu  jummer  lesen  will",  and  "Vunmorgens  is  se 
ganzli  verbistert  un  verbas't".  The  most  detailed  and  naturalistic  of 
Groth's  descriptions  of  interiors  is  the  description  of  the  garret  in  "Rum- 
pelkamer"2,  where  we  find  mention  of  rats,  mice,  soot,  and  smoke  from 
the  chimney,  spiders,  millipeds,  the  insect  known  as  the  "Totenham- 
mer"3,  dead  flies,  an  old  doll  without  arms  and  legs,  saws  with  some  of 
their  teeth  lacking,  broken  chairs,  and  mucor.  Later*  he  also  adds  the 
chest  with  an  old-fashioned  rusty  lock,  and  a  worm-eaten  bottom.  By 
contrast  he  introduces  the  street  with  the  church,  carriages,  houses,  its 
lamps  which  are  lit  at  night,  and  its  characteristic  types  (the  butcher, 
the  huckster,  miller,  and  also  the  coffee  can  inside  of  the  houses). 

The  foregoing  poem  is  a  striking  example  of  Groth's  ability  to  create 
a  realistic  atmosphere.  This  is  also  brought  out  in  "Peter  Kunrad''^, 
where  the  pastor  steps  outside  to  light  his  clay  pipe;  we  see  the  tired 
peasants  going  by  with  shovels  on  their  shoulders,  the  dairy  maid  whose 
back  is  tired  from  her  load,  the  voice  inside  the  house,  and  the  arrival 
of  the  panting  old  man. 

Other  noteworthy  poems  of  Groth  are:  "En  Breef"*,  which  treats  of 
the  trivial  contents  of  a  letter,  and  might  be  compared  to  Liliencron's 
"Aus  der  Kinderzeit"^.  "De  Welf's  is  a  reaHstic  description  of  war- 
fare; the  unknown  is  always  compared  to  the  known:  "as  de  eerste 
Bossel  op  uns  tokeem  langs  de  Chaussee  as  op  en  Kegelbahn",  and  "Am 
slimmsten  is  dat  Jammern  un  Geschrigg  vun  Minsch  un  Veh,  un  denn 
dat  Wort  dertwischen,  as  drev  man'n  Koppel  Ossen  rop  na  Hamborg". 

Eduard  Morike,  undoubtedly  the  greatest  lyric  poet  of  the  age  be- 
tween Heine  and  Liliencron,  was  also  an  important  realist.  He  also  has 
a  tendency  to  introduce  realistic  detail,  although  in  a  manner  different 
from  that  of  Annette;  he  mentions  the  rusty,  squeaking  garden  gate^, 

'p.  32.  2p.  105.  3Anobium  pertinax.  ^p.  i08.  sp.  68.  6p,  7.  7ed.  of 
Liliencron,  Berlin  and  Leipsic,  1904,  v.  VIII,  p.  193.  sp.  176(177). 
9ed.  used  for  Morike:  Stuttgart,  1890.  Reference  to  "Ach  nur  einmal 
noch  im  Leben",  p.  224. 

45 


dusty  shoes  after  a  stroll  in  the  summer',  the  gnats  in  the  forest2,  the 
icicle  resembling  rock-candy^,  the  wasps  which  have  eaten  the  inside 
out  of  a  fallen  pear*,  thin  beer  and  over-salty  pork,  as  well  as  the  man 
who  incessantly  uses  his  napkin  at  the  tabled,  and  a  nightmare^.  In 
"Alles  mit  Maas"^  he  complains  because  his  hostess  always  prepares 
pigs  feet  for  dinner.  His  observation  is  at  times  fairly  exact:  he  notices 
the  shadow  of  an  umbrella  on  a  rainy  dayS,  and  the  peculiar  effect  of 
the  light  of  a  carriage  on  a  dark  country  road  when  thrown  against  a 
housed.  In  "Abreise"'o  he  mentions  the  dry  spot  left  by  the  carriage 
standing  on  the  road  while  all  the  rest  of  the  ground  got  wet  during  the 
shower.  In  "An  Philomele"''  the  song  of  the  nightingale  is  likened  to 
the  noise  made  when  a  bottle  is  filled  and  runs  over,  but  the  simile 
makes  the  poet  thirsty;  he  stops  his  poem  in  order  to  go  where  they 
bowl  and  drink  beer,  saying  in  excuse,- "ich  versprach  es  halb  dem  Ober- 
amtsgerichtsverweser,  auch  dem  Notar  und  dem  Oberf orster" . 

The  poem  "Meines  Vetters  Brautfahrt"i2  is  perhaps  the  most  pro- 
nouncedly realistic  among  the  poems  of  Morike:  "Freut  er  sich  denn 
auch  ein  wenig,  die  kiinftige  Braut  zu  begriissen?  Aber  wo  bleibt  er  so 
lang?  Sagt  ihm,  die  Kutsche  sei  da! — Droben  im  Bett  noch  liegt  er, 
verdriesslich,  und  lieset  in  Schellers  Lexikon!  Als  ich  ihn  schalt,  rief  er 
halb  grimmig:  'Nun  ja,  gebt  mir  andere  Striimpf!  die  haben  Locher — 
ach  freilich  eine  Frau  muss  ins  Haus,  die  mich  von  Fuss  auf  kuriert!'  ". 

Being  a  country  parson,  Morike  is  naturally  interested  in  country 
life,  although  indoor  life  is  taken  into  account  much  more  than  in  the 
rural  realists  preceding  Morike.  Thus  in  "Landliche  Kurzweil"i3  we  are 
introduced  into  the  parson's  dining  room;  the  table  has  been  cleared, 
but  the  table-cloth  is  still  on  the  table.  The  women  sort  poppy  seeds, 
while  the  parson  reads  the  "Haller  Jahreshefte". 

"Der  alte  Turmhahn"'*  is  a  parallel  to  Annette  von  Droste-HiilshofT's 
"Des  alten  Pfarrers  Woche";  only  here  it  is  the  Protestant  country 
clergyman  whose  life  is  described.  It  is  really  the  story  of  a  weather 
cock,  which  has  been  taken  down  from  the  steeple  and  put  in  front  of 
the  village  smithy,  where  chickens  cackle  around  it.  It  is  rescued  by 
the  parson,  who  takes  it  to  his  study.    "Sogleich  empfing  mich  sondre 

»"Erbauliche  Betrachtung",  p.  228.  2"Waldplage",  p.  236.  3"An  einen 
Iviebenden",  p.  295.  ^"Epistel",  p.  147.  5"Besuch  in  der  Karthause", 
p.  240.  6p.  318.  7p.  317.  8"Erinnerung",  p.  5.  ^"Nachtliche  Fahrt", 
p.  8.     lOp.  124.     lip.  295.     i2p.  154.     i3p.  208.     ^p.  194. 

46 


Luft,  Biicher — und  Gelahrtenduft,  Gerani — und  Resedaschmack,  auch 
ein  Riichlein  Rauchtabak",  the  weather  cock  says.  The  study  and  es- 
pecially the  stove  in  the  study  are  described  in  detail.  The  most  in- 
teresting of  the  descriptions  is  that  of  the  pastor  at  his  work,  which  he 
occasionally  interrupts  to  take  snuff  or  to  trim  the  lamp,  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  night  with  its  nocturnal  noises  and  the  fear  of  burglars  which 
these  engender,  and  the  description  of  the  quiet  Sunday  morning,  when 
everybody  has  gone  to  church  and  when  the  house  is  abandoned  to  the 
mouse,  the  sun  shining  through  the  window,  and  the  spider  spinning  its 
web.  "Hausliche  Szene"'  shows  us  the  schoolmaster  scolding  his  wife 
before  going  to  bed  for  taking  the  wrong  vinegar  in  order  to  preserve 
cucumbers.  The  schoolmaster's  hobby  has  been  to  experiment  with 
the  making  of  vinegar,  and  the  neighbors  have  already  begun  to  talk 
about  this  peculiarity.  This  poem  again  illustrates  the  simple  realism 
of  Morike  language. 

Another  poem  characteristic  of  Morike's  realism  is  "An  meinen  Vet- 
ter"2.  Here  he  tells  of  having  dinner  with  a  type  of  man  which  he  char- 
acterizes thus:  "Haben  manchmal  hiibsche  Bauche,  und  ihr  Vaterland 
ist  Schwaben".  He  tells  that  the  dinner  consisted  of  soup  with  red 
crabs,  beef  with  mustard  arid  radishes,  that  they  talked  about  the  lat- 
est news  and  the  thunderstorm  on  the  day  preceding,  and  that  the 
other  man  used  a  tooth-pick,  filled  his  pipe  when  the  coffee  was  served, 
and  arose  once  in  a  while  to  look  after  the  horses.  This  type  of  indi- 
vidual is  called  "Sommerweste"  by  the  poet.  Its  opposite  is  perhaps 
the  "Sehrmann",  who  is  portrayed  in  "An  Longus"^.  This  poem  also 
introduces  us  to  the  landing  place,  where  laborers  are  swearing  while 
they  tend  to  the  barrels,  chests,  bales,  and  other  baggage;  the  street 
urchin  looks  on  with  his  hands  in  his  pockets,  while  a  conceited,  well- 
dressed  "vSehrmann"  promenades  on  the  quais  in  company  of  a  lady. 

"Ludwig  Richters  Kinder-Symphonie"*  tells  about  children  playing 
on  the  street  and  pretending  to  give  a  symphony  concert.  The  simple 
narrative  tone  of  Morike  again  becomes  evident :  ' '  Denn  ich  selber,  mit 
einem  Dresdner  Freunde,  der  verwichenen  Herbst  sich  gern,  als  Maler, 
unsere  Schwaben  einmal  beschauen  wollte,  war  zufalliger  Zeuge  dieser 
Szene,  als  wir  beide,  von  Friedrichshafen  kommend,  vor  dem  Stadtchen 
im  Risstal,  das  Ihr  kennet,  in  Erwartung  des  Vier-Uhr-Zuges  miissig 
hin  und  her  um  die  alten  Mauern  strichen.  Leider  waren  des  Herrn 
Dekans  Hochwiirden  damals  eben  verreist,  er  hatte  sonst  wohl  uns  im 

>p.  304.     2p.  289.     3p.  230.     *p.  249. 

47 


kuhligen  Haus  bei  sich  ein  Fasslein  angestochen  des  edlen  Kraftge- 
braudes,  das  sein  heimatlich  Ulm  ihm  zollt  alljahlich".  Later  the  shrill 
whistle  of  the  railroad  is  brought  in. 

In  "Besuch  in  der  Karthause"'  where  Morike  uses  the  expression 
"auf  den  Striimpfen  sein",  we  read:  "Am  Abend,  wo  es  unten  schwarz 
mit  Bauern  sitzt,  behagt'  er  sich  beim  Deckelglas,  die  Dose  und  das 
blaue  Sacktuch  neben  sich,  im  Dunst  und  Schwul  der  Zechgesellschaft, 
plauderte,  las  die  Zeitung  vor,  sprach  Politik  und  Landwirtschaft". 

We  can  not  leave  Morike  without  mentioning  the  love  poetry  which 
he  has  put  into  the  mouth  of  girls  in  the  humbler  paths  of  life2.  These 
poems  are  characterized  by  simplicity  of  language,  realism  in  the  por- 
trayal of  background,  and  truth  of  sentiment;  there  is  none  of  the  ro- 
mantic idealism  characteristic  of  the  poems  of  Chamisso  or  Riickert 
that  deal  with  woman's  love.  "Det  Jager"3  is  a  male  parallel  to  the 
poems  just  referred  to.  The  sentiment  of  "Lied  eines  Verliebten"*  is 
also  notable  for  its  truth  and  realism.  But  Morike's  longer  epic  poem, 
"Idylle  vom  Bodensee"5  does  not  go  beyond  Goethe's  "Hermann  und 
Dorothea"  in  its  realism. 

Freiligrath,  not  a  realistic  poet  on  the  whole,  has  shown  marked  so- 
cialistic tendencies  in  "Vom  Harze''^,  "Aus  dem  schlesischen  Gebirge"^, 
and  in  the  song  of  the  machinist  on  the  steamer  on  the  Rhine^.  He 
has  also  written  a  poem  on  the  passing  of  the  old  romantic  spirit'. 

The  poetry  of  the  great  dramatist  and  thinker  Hebbel  does  not 
abound  in  realistic  detail  to  the  same  extent  as  that  of  Annette  or 
Moerike.  Hebbel's  poetry  is  more  philosophical,  more  abstract.  And 
when  Hebbel  does  treat  of  real  life  his  impressionable  and  oversensi- 
tive temperament  tends  toward  gloomy  exaggeration 'o.  He  is  keenly 
aware,  however,  of  the  tragic  sides  of  real  life,  as  is  shown  by  such  poems 
as  "Die  junge  Mutter" •'.  "Der  Bettler  weintumseinenSohn"i2,  "Gross- 
mutter"  i3,    "Die   Kindesm6rderin"i4,   etc.      Among  his   most  realistic 

ip.  240.  2"Agnes",  p.  61.;  'Das  verlassene  Magdlein",  p.  61;  "Die 
Soldatenbraut",  p.  65.  ^p.  16.  4p.  120.  5p.  325.  6ed.  used  for  Freil- 
igrath: New  York,  F.  Gerhard,  v.  VI,  1859.  "Vom  Harze",  p.  104. 
7p.  118.  squoted  in  Theobald  Ziegler's  "Die  geistigen  und  socialen 
Stromungen  des  neunzehnten  Jahrhunderts",  Berlin,  1901,  p.  269. 
9"Ein  Flecken  am  Rheine",  p.  24.  lOed.  used  for  Hebbel:  Berlin,  1904, 
V.  VI,  unless  otherwise  stated.  Reference  to  "Traum",  v.  VII,  p.  166; 
"Rauber  und  Henker",  v.  VII,  p.  181;  "Eine  Hinrichtung",  v.  VII, 
p.  184.     lip.  179.     i2v.  VII,  p.  179.     i3p.  240.     ^v.  VII,  p.  68. 

48 


poems  are  the  ones  which  treat  of  episodes  of  childhood  life,  like  the  one 
which  tells  of  the  small  boy's  pet  cati,  or  of  his  dog2.  In  a  few  cases 
Hebbel  has  given  us  fairly  concrete  pictures  of  nature^.  "Das  Haus  am 
Meer"'*  is  rather  exceptionally  realistic  for  a  poem  by  Hebbel.  It  tells 
how  a  house  is  being  built  by  the  seashore  and  here  we  read:  "Mach- 
tige  Hammerschlage  erdrohnen  schwer  und  voll;  die  Sagen  knarren  und 
zischen,  verworren  hort  man  dazwischen  der  Wogen  dumpf  GeroU". 
The  poem  "Nachtgefiihr's  starts:  "Wenn  ich  mich  Abends  entkleide, 
gemachsam,  Stiick  fiir  Stuck,  so  tragen  die  miiden  Gedanken  mich  vor- 
warts  Oder  zuriick".  The  poet  thinks  of  the  boyhood  days  when  his 
mother  used  to  undress  him.  The  poem  "Der  Knabe"  is  based  upon  a 
boy  being  called  away  from  his  playmates  and  told  to  come  home  by 
his  mother  much  to  his  dissatisfaction^. 

But  the  real  contribution  of  Hebbel  to  the  development  of  naturalism 
is  not  to  be  found  in  his  shorter  poems,  but  rather  in  his  epic  "Mutter 
und  Kind"7.  Here  we  find  the  life  of  the  lower  classes  depicted,  we  have 
the  study  of  a  "milieu"  in  the  slums  of  the  big  city,  and  a  distinctly  re- 
alistic atmosphere  throughout.  The  poet  leads  us  into  the  foul-smelling 
subterranean  habitation  of  the  slums:  "Die  (die  Wande)  dunsten,  dass, 
wer  herein  tritt,  fast  erstickt,  doch  die  Miete  ist  billig,  auch  jagt  sie  der 
Hausherr  nicht  so  leicht  heraus,  es  fehlt  am  zweiten  Bewerber,  darum 
bleiben  sie  sitzen.  Sie  soUen  vom  Fieber  genesen,  wo's  ein  Gesunder 
bekommt"8.  We  also  hear  of  the  high  cost  of  living^;  we  see  the  maid 
who  reads  her  dream-book'o  and  the  mistress  who  studies  the  fashions!' ; 
we  read  of  the  harlots  who  pick  pockets  12,  and  of  the  bold  masher  of  the 
big  city '3.  We  find  the  most  concrete  and  realistic  descriptions  in  this 
poem,  such  as  that  of  the  youth  leaning  against  a  street-lamp  on  a  dark 
and  frosty  winter  morning  1 4,  or  the  description  of  how  the  coachman  is 
awakened  by  the  grinding  of  the  coffee-mill  early  in  the  morning;  we 
are  told  that  the  latter  never  appears  before  breakfast  is  ready:  "Jetzt 
sogar  bleibt  ilim  noch  Zeit,  den  Thermometer  am  Fenster  um  den  Grad 
zu  befragen,  doch  ist's  ihm  freilich  nicht  moglich,  auch  nach  der  Uhr 
zu  seh'n,  die  ihm  zu  Haupten  am  Bett  hangt"i5.  The  poet  describes 
urban  as  well  as  rural  life,  the  dwellings  of  the  well-to-do  as  well  as  of 

i"Aus  der  Kindheit",  p.  194.  2"Schau  ich  in  die  tiefste  Feme",  p.  408. 
3"Vorfruhling",  p.  228;  "Herbstbild",  p.  232.  4p.  279.  5p.  227.  ^v. 
VII,  p.  116.  7v.  VIII.  The  following  references  are  to  lines.  8IO6- 
110.    9167-169.     10270.     ii663.     121151.     13924-981.     1422-33.     15261-268. 

49 


the  slums.  He  refers  to  the  telegraphi,  the  steam-boat2,  the  locomotive^, 
and  does  not  forget  the  contemporary  gold  fever  in  California*  and  the 
modern  anarchistic  agitation^.  In  short  we  could  say  that  we  have  com- 
plete naturalism  in  "Mutter  und  Kind",  if  it  were  not  for  Hebbel's 
language,  which  is  always  conventional,  and  for  the  rather  unusual 
plot,  which  is  very  characteristic  of  Hebbel. 

The  contributions  of  Gottfried  Keller  to  the  development  of  modern 
naturalism  are  also  considerable.  "Unter  Sternen"  is  completely  based 
on  modern  astronomical  knowledge^.  The  modern  age  with  its  rail- 
road and  its  plans  for  aerial  navigation  no  longer  troubles  this  poet^. 
Keller  claims:  "die  Poesie  ist  angeboren,  und  sie  erkennt  kein  Dort  und 
Hier!"8. 

Realistic  details  are  more  abundant  in  Keller  than  in  Hebbel.  Keller 
mentions  the  rubbish  heap^,  elderly  men  coughing  and  spitting'^,  dirty 
snow'i,  washwomen  carrying  home  the  starched  and  ironed  clothes  12, 
and  the  red  nose  of  a  lackey '3;  he  writes  a  poem  about  a  barmaid i*,  uses 
a  trivial  simile  like  the  squeezing  out  of  a  lemon '-^  and  does  not  hesitate 
to  refer  even  to  fleas  and  bed-bugs i^.  Commonplace  expressions  are  in- 
troduced occasionally,  such  as  "auf  die  Striimpfe  helfen"  in  "Nacht  im 
Zeughaus  VIF'i^  or  "sich  sputen"  in  "Die  Thronfolger"i8. 

Concrete  and  realistic  descriptions  are  numerous  in  Keller.  Among 
the  most  vivid  is  the  description  of  the  pastor  in  the  garden  in  "Wochen- 
predigt">9;  "Hier  hat  er  Ranken  angebunden,  ein  nagendes  Raupchen 
abgelesen,  dort  aufgehoben  einen  Besen  und  an  das  Gartenhaus  ge- 
lehnt — hateine  Schmetterling  gefangen,  wirft einen  Socken  iiber  den  Hag, 
der  mitten  in  einem  Beete  lag".  "Stilleben"20  describes  a  quiet  little 
town  on  the  Rhine  where  the  silence  is  only  interrupted  by  a  scolding 
old  woman  or  by  the  noise  of  the  bowling  alley.    "In  der  Stadt"2i  in- 

11835-1842.  2223.  21535.  ^202-214.  51884-1895.  ^ed.  used  for  Keller: 
Berlin,  1898  and  1900,  v.  I,  unless  otherwise  stated.  "Unter  Sternen", 
p.  20.  7"An  Justinus  Kerner",  v.  II,  p.  128.  "Zeitlandschaft",  v.  II, 
p.  152.  Compare  "Eisenbahnlied"  by  Hoffman  von  Fallersleben  (ed. 
Berlin,  1891,  v.  II,  p.  294).  »v.  II,  p.  129.  9"Schlechte  Jahreszeit", 
p.  279.  io"Wochenpredigt",  p.  189.  ii"Der  Taugenichts",  v.  II,  p.  84. 
i2"Berliner  Pfingsten",  v.  II,  p.  95.  i3"Weihnachtsmarkt",  v.  II,  p.  96. 
i4"Biermamsell",  v.  II,  p.  98.  i5"Gasel",  v.  II,  p.  11.  i6"Auf  Maler 
Distelis  Tod",  p.  278;  "Jesuitenzug",  p.  281,  verse  6.  i^p.  139.  isy.  II, 
p.  45.     i9p.  189.     20p,  177,     2ip.  107. 

50 


troduces  us  to  the  noise  of  city  streets:  "Was  ist  das  fiir  ein  Schrei'n 
und  Peitschenknallen  ?  Die  Fenster  zittern  von  der  Hufe  Klang,  zwolf 
Rosse  keuchen  an  dem  straffen  Strang,  und  Fuhrmannsfliiche  durch  die 
Gasse  schallen".  "Feuer-Idylle"i  describes  a  big  fire;  "Schiitz  im 
Stichfieber"2  introduces  us  to  a  fair.  A  tendency  to  satirize  occasionally 
appears:  "Frau  R6sel"3  is  a  picture  of  the  king- worship  so  common  in 
monarchical  countries  and  a  picture  showing  human  nature  from  some 
of  its  less  pleasant  sides.  The  polished  upper  society  is  portrayed  in 
"Polkakirche"*.  The  hard,  cruel  aspects  of  life  are  brought  out  in  "Der 
Taugenichts"5  where  it  is  shown  that  the  world  is  no  place  for  the  ideal- 
istic dreamer. 

Socialistic  tendencies  are  very  pronounced  in  Keller.  In  "Zur  Ernte- 
zeit"6  the  desire  of  the  laborers  in  the  harvest  field  for  a  great  revolu- 
tion is  emphasized;  the  second  part  of  the  poem  ends  with  the  words: 
"Das  Menschenelend  krabbelt  mich  wie  eine  Wolfsspinne  an".  The  mis- 
fortunes of  the  servant  class  are  touched  upon  in  "Klage  der  Magd"^, 
and  there  is  a  reproach  for  those  who  turn  a  deaf  ear  toward  the  suf- 
ferings of  the  world  in  "Der  Schongeisf's.  The  future  revolution  is 
again  visualized  in  "Winterspiel"^,  and  socialistic  teachings  referred  to 
in  "Rote  Lehre"io.  "Das  grosse  Schillerfesfn  shows  us  the  women  of 
the  lower  classes  who  have  a  hard  time  in  supporting  their  many  chil- 
dren when  the  husband  is  dead  or  a  good-for-nothing.  "Wochenpredigt"i2 
shows  us  the  inadequacy  of  the  church ;  while  the  people  are  working  in 
the  fields,  the  minister,  who  does  not  know  what  to  do  with  all  his  spare 
time,  preaches  to  elderly  men  and  women  who  have  done  more  than  he 
in  bearing  the  burdens  of  life. 

Keller's  attitude  toward  nature  is  also  extremely  realistic.  He  likes 
to  picture  rainy,  chilly,  and  disagreeable  weather,  dusty  roads,  poor 
crops,  etc. 13,  In  "Triibes  Wetter" i*  he  writes:  "Die  Lebenslust,  die  To- 
despein  sie  ziehn  auf  meinem  Herzen  Schach",  and  in  "Gasel"i5  we 
read:  "Herbstnachtliche  Wolken,  sie  wanken  und  zieh'n  gleich  fieberisch 
traumenden  Kranken  dahin". 

Keller  has  evidently  approved  of  a  poet  looking  for  subject-matter 
in  the  columns  of  a  newspaper 1 6.    Perhaps  he  has  received  his  own  in- 

ip.  151.  2p.  213.  3v.  II,  p.  46.  4v.  II,  p.  98.  Sy.  II,  p.  84.  6p.  151. 
7v.  II,  p.  74.  8v.  II,  p.  90.  9p.  72.  lOy.  n,  p.  26.  ny.  II,  p.  153. 
i2p.  189.  i3"Regen-Sommer",  p.  59;  "Land  im  Herbste",  p.  68;  "Das 
grosse  Schillerfest",  v.  II,  p.  153.  i^p.  65.  i^p.  61.  ^^"'Ein  Schwur- 
gericht",  v.  II,  p.  148. 

51 


spiration  in  that  manner  when  he  pictured  the  French  foreign  legion  in 
the  midst  of  glowing  deserts'.  The  poem  "Clemens  Brentano,  Kerner 
und  Genossen"2  shows  that  Keller  has  completely  broken  with  ro- 
manticism, 

Theodor  Storm's  small  volume  of  poetry  proves  him  to  be  a  decided 
forerunner  of  the  naturalistic  period.  In  describing  nature  his  chief 
characteristics  are:  care  for  detail  (mention  of  numerous  plant  species 
in  "Waldweg"3,  the  mention  of  the  less  agreeable  aspects  of  nature,  such 
as  the  gray  and  barren  seashore,  the  shrill  voice  of  the  wild  goose  in 
"Die  Stadt"4,  or  of  the  scum  of  the  sea  in  "Meeresstrand"5,  the  intro- 
duction of  odors,  such  as  that  of  the  hay  in  "Sommermittag"6,  and  of 
autumn  leaves  and  pines  in  "Waldweg"^,  and  finally  a  care  for  nature 
sounds  in  "Waldweg" :  "Und  vorwarts,  schreitend  storte  bald  mein  Tritt 
die  Biene  auf,  die  um  die  Distel  schwarmte,  bald  horte  ich,  wie  durch 
die  Graser  glitt  die  Schlange,  die  am  Sonnenstrahl  sich  warmte".  The 
heat  of  the  sun's  rays  is  mentioned  in  "Waldweg"  and  in  "Abseits"8. 
With  this  care  for  detail  the  nature  pictures  of  Storm  are  wonderfully 
vivid  and  concrete.  The  cruel  and  unfeeling  side  of  nature  is  emphasized 
in  "Einer  Todten  II"9,  where  the  poet  complains  that  nature  does  not 
share  his  grief  over  the  death  of  his  friend.  In  "Aus  der  Marsch"io,  we 
find  him  philosophizing  about  the  oxen  in  the  pasture. 

The  old  folk-song  realism  again  appears  in  Storm's  "  Elisabeth"  n. 

The  poem  "Stossseufzer"i2  is  characteristic  of  Storm's  realism:  "Am 
Weihnachtssonntag  kam  er  zu  mir,  in  Jack  und  Schurzfell,  und  roch 
nach  Bier  und  sprach  zwei  Stunden  zu  meiner  Oual  von  Zinsen  und  von 
Capital;  ein  Kerl,  vor  dem  mich  Gott  bewahr;  Hat  keinen  Festtag  im 
ganzen  Jahr."  "Engel-Ehe"i3  introduces  us  to  the  woman  who  keeps  her 
house  neat,  but  neglects  her  personal  appearance;  she  talks  to  her  hus- 
band in  a  cross,  indifferent  way  as  if  she  were  throwing  a  bone  to  a  dog, 
for  she  blames  him  for  everything,  for  the  impertinence  of  the  servants, 
for  the  big  washing,  for  the  day's  work  and  the  sleepless  nights,  not  to 
forget  the  dirty  poodle  and  the  children .  ' '  Eine  Friihlingsnacht' '  i *  vividly 
pictures  the  feverish  patient  lying  on  his  warm  bed:  "Im  Zimmer  drin- 
nen  ist's  so  schwiil;  der  Kranke  liegt  auf  dem  heissen  Pfiihl.  Im  Fieber 
hat  er  die  Nacht  verbracht;  sein  Herz  ist  miide,  sein  Auge  verwacht, 

i"Schlafwandel",  v.  II,  p.  72.  2p.  122.  3ed.  used  for  Storm:  Braun- 
schweig, 1900.  "Waldweg",  p.  227.  4p.  194.  Sp.  194.  6p.  193.  7p. 
227.  8p.  192.  9p.  211.  lOp.  225.  up.  195.  i2p.  225.  i3p.  224. 
i4p.  229. 

52 


— Er  halt  die  Uhr  in  der  weissen  Hand.  Er  zahlt  die  Schlage,  die  sie 
pickt,  er  forscliet,  wie  der  Weiser  riickt".  The  poem  ends  with  the  death 
of  the  patient.  "Ein  Sterbender"i  again  shows  us  a  dying  person;  the 
old  man  is  drumming  on  the  window  pane  and  watching  the  blood  flow- 
ing through  the  veins  of  his  hand,  while  the  clock  is  ticking;  the  mem- 
ories of  his  past  life  appear,  and  then  he  writes  his  wish  that  no  minister 
should  be  allowed  to  officiate  at  his  burial. 

This  realism  of  Storm  often  becomes  uncanny,  although  there  is  no 
resort  to  the  supernatural.  In  no  other  poem  has  the  uncanny  and  hor- 
rifying mystery  of  death  been  expressed  with  a  more  terrible  vividness 
and  power  than  in  "Geh  nicht  hinein"2;  this  absolutely  reahstic  poem 
is  truly  supreme  in  its  way:  "Im  Fliigcl  oben  hinterm  Corridor,  wo  es 
so  jahlings  einsam  worden  ist, — nicht  in  dem  ersten  Zimmer,  wo  man 
sonst  ihn  finden  mochte,  in  die  blasse  Hand  das  junge  Haupt  gestijtzt, 
die  Augen  traumend  entlang  den  Wanden  streifend,  wo  im  Laub  von 
Tropenpflanzen  ausgebalgt  Getier  die  Fliigel  spreizte  und  die  Tatzen 
reckte,  halb  Wunder  noch,  halb  Wissensratsel  ihm, — nicht  dort;  der 
Stuhl  ist  leer,  die  Pflanzen  lassen  verdiirstend  ihre  schonen  Blatter  hang- 
en;  Staub  sinkt  herab; — nein,  nebenan  die  Tiir.  in  jenem  hohen  damm- 
rigen  Gemach, — beklommne  Schwiile  ist  drin  eingeschlossen — dort  hin- 
term Wandschirm  auf  dem  Bette  liegt  etwas — geh  nicht  hinein!  Es 
schaut  dich  fremd  und  furchtbar  an".  The  poem  goes  on  to  tell  how 
the  young  man  died.  Some  of  this  uncanniness  is  also  found  in  "Sturm- 
nacht"3. 

Unconventional  expressions  also  occur  in  Storm's  poetry;  thus  we 
have  "alte  Schatullen"  and  "schmeisst"  in  "Sturmnacht".  The  spirit 
of  compassion  appears  in  "Weihnachtsabend"*.  It  would  thus  appear 
that  most  of  the  realistic  tendencies  of  the  German  lyric  are  united  in 
Storm. 

THE   IMMEDIATE   FORERUNNERS   OF   NATURALISM 

Eduard  Grisebach,  going  back  to  the  "Dirnenlyrik"  of  Heine,  has 
given  us  the  modern  version  of  a  mediaeval  legend  in  "Der  neuc  Tann- 
hauser"5.  Mediaeval  myths  and  the  puffing  railroad  of  today  occur 
side  by  side  in  "Es  war  um  Ostern"^.  A  cruel  sense  of  reality  is  found  in 

ip.  259.  2p.  274.  3p.  226.  ^p.  244.  ^Because  of  the  war  in  Europe  I 
was  unable  to  get  a  copy  of  "Der  neue  Tannhauser".  The  poems  re- 
ferred to  are  to  be  found  in  Bethge's  "Deutsche  Lyrik  seit  Liliencron." 
6p.  95. 

53 


"Fell  hat  sie  Rettich"',  which  was  suggested  by  an  incident  in  a  street 
scene  and  shows  us  the  fate  of  the  prostitute  when  youth  and  fair  looks 
have  left  her. 

Anzengruber,  the  naturalistic  dramatist  of  Austria,  has  also  put  some 
of  his  realism  into  his  poems.  In  "Des  Bettlers  Lied" 2  the  world  is  seen 
through  the  eyes  of  a  beggar.  "Modernes  Fruhlingslied"^,  a  rather  con- 
ventional spring-song,  suddenly  ends  with  the  words:  "Du  nimmst  doch 
deinen  Reisepelz  und  auch  den  Fuss-sack  mit?".  "Stimmungsbild"* 
gives  us  a  gloomy  picture  of  nature.  "Die  Naherin"5  is  one  of  the  best 
pictures  of  real  life  which  Anzengruber  has  given  us.  Anzengruber' s 
poems  are  only  few  and  were  not  published  collectively  before  1884.  It 
is  also  doubtful  if  he  has  influenced  the  naturalistic  lyric  since  1884  to 
any  great  extent,  since  modern  naturalism  in  poetry  is  chiefly  to  be 
found  in  North  German  poets,  if  we  make  allowances  for  exceptions,^ 
such  as  Ferdinand  von  Saar. 

In  approaching  Fontane  and  Ferdinand  von  Saar  we  are  already  deal- 
ing with  the  generation  of  Liliencron.  Many  of  the  later  poems  of  these 
two  poets  have  been  written  after  1884. 

The  language  of  Theodor  Fontane  is  characterized  by  its  simplicity 
and  unconventionality,  which  place  Fontane  very  close  to  Liliencron  as 
a  naturalistic  poet.  Any  of  Fontane's  poems  would  serve  as  an  illustra- 
tion. 

Fontane  is  especially  a  realistic  painter  of  middle  class  life  in  Berlin. 
"Unsere  deutsche  Frau"^  introduces  the  average  woman  of  the  middle 
class  in  Berlin,  who  talks  about  the  kitchen,  the  washing,  the  house, 
and  her  husband,  who  plays  skat  every  Wednesday.  Her  views  on 
the  theater,  on  Sudermann  and  Schiller,  are  voiced ;  her  favorite  amusement 
seems  to  be  to  see  the  Kaiser,  or  to  listen  to  the  concert  in  the  zoological 
garden.  "Wurzels"^  gives  us  another  insight  into  Berlin  life.  During 
the  dialogue  between  the  wife  and  her  somewhat  stubborn  husband  we 
hear  the  wife  must  make  jelly,  the  hired  girl  must  look  after  the  fuel, 
and  that  the  son  goes  to  the  Gymnasium  on  the  horse-car. 

In  "Wiird'  es  mir  fehlen,  wiird'  ich's  vermissen?"8,  P'ontane  reflects 
on  the  benefits  of  warm  coffee,  fresh  rolls,  and  the  morning  paper  at 
the  breakfast  table;  he  sees  the  apron  hanging  over  the  chair  at  the 

'p.  96.  2ed.  used  for  Anzengruber:  Stuttgart,  n.d.Cotta.  "Des  Bettlers 
Lied",  p.  253.  3p.  325.  ^p.  280.  5p.  290.  ^gd.  used  for  Fontane: 
Stuttgart  and  Berlin,  1908.  "Unsere  deutsche  Frau",  p.  51.  7p,  78, 
8p  28, 

54 


butcher's  across  the  street,  and  the  small  girls  going  to  school.  The  ex- 
change of  words  in  the  Tiergarten  in  *Xebenswege"i  is  also  extremely 
realistic.  "Fritz  Katzfuss"^  leads  us  into  the  grocery  store;  various 
articles  sold  are  mentioned,  such  as  soda,  wash-bluing,  etc.,  and  we 
find  the  poet  using  expressions  like  "nolen"  and  "wie  verbiestert" . 
"Ja,  das  mocht'  ich  noch  erleben"^  is  a  reflection  on  the  grand-son 
going  to  the  elementary  school  with  his  books  in  a  bag  (Mappe),  and 
the  blotters  pasted  into  his  note  book. 

Outside  of  middle-class  urban  life,  Fontane  has  also  given  us  some 
realistic  pictures  of  society  farther  up,  although  these  tend  to  be  some- 
what satirical.  The  stiff,  cold  formality  prevalent  in  the  higher  Prussian 
society  is  represented  in  "Hoffest"*  and  "Auf  dem  Matthaikirchhof"^; 
here  people  must  limit  their  conversation  to  a  few  conventional  and 
set  phrases  in  order  to  avoid  undue  familiarity.  The  importance  which 
the  subordinate  official  attaches  to  decorations  from  the  emperor  is 
brought  out  in  "Der  Subalterne"^  and  "Wie  man's  machen  muss"^,  and 
the  modern  worship  of  mammon  is  touched  in  "Erfolganbeter"8  and 
"Such  nicht,  wie's  eigentlich  gewesen"^.  Fontane  has  given  us  glimpses 
of  society  in  the  large  watering  places lo  and  on  the  seashore^.  "Arm 
oder  reich"i2,  which  incidentally  mentions  the  telephone,  names  cer- 
tain parvenu  types  of  society:  "Der  Griinkramhandler,  der  Weissbier- 
budiker,  der  Tantenbecourer,  der  Erbschaftsschlieker,  der  Ziichter  von 
Southdownhammelherden,  Hoppegartenbarone  mit  Rennstallpf erden" . 
The  poet  does  not  like  these  people,  he  prefers  the  very  wealthy,  such 
as  the  Goulds,  the  Astors,  the  Vanderbilts,  etc.  "Bin  Ball  in  Paris" '^ 
is  also  one  of  the  realistic  poems  dealing  with  the  higher  class  of  society. 
The  first  two  stanzas  give  us  a  very  vivid  and  concrete  picture  of  how 
the  carriages  and  vehicles  convey  the  ladies  to  the  ball  room.  We  read: 
"hin  durch  der  Gassen  Enge  braust  rasselnd  der  Karossen  bunte  Menge, 
— Hallo,  die  Peitsche  knallt,  die  Rosse  dampfen, — und  jetzt  ein  kurzes 
'Halt' — hell  glanzt  das  Ziel,  der  pracht'ge  Ballsaal  des  Hotel  de  Ville. 
Rings  Fackelglanz;  die  Nacht  ist  lichter  Tag,  betresste  Diener  springen 
an  den  Schlag,  leis  knistert  auf  der  steingehaunen  Treppe  der  Atlas- 
schuh,  es  rauscht  die  Seidenschleppe,  der  Mantel  fallt,  und  jetzt  in 
luft'gem  Schal,  selbst  luftig,  schwebt  die  Schonheit  in  den  Saal". 

>p.  30.  2p.  61.  3p.  59.  4p.  36.  5p.  38.  6p.  37.  7p.  40.  sp.  41. 
9p.  45.  'o"Brunnenpromenade",  p.  52.  "^Der  Sommer  and  Winter- 
Geheimrat",  p.  37.     >2p.  82.     i3p.  300. 

55 


Fontane's  "Die  Geschichte  vom  kleinen  Ei"^  appears  to  be  a  picture 
taken  from  real  life.  The  reader  can  vividly  imagine  how  the  countess 
with  her  two  grown-up  daughters  and  her  consumptive  son  is  depart- 
ing for  Italy  amidst  trunks  and  servants;  how  the  young  student,  who 
has  remained  behind,  spends  his  time  in  the  "Krug",  in  playing  whist, 
and  in  talking  about  oleomargarine,  butter,  the  stock  show,  the  wool 
market,  and  the  grain  crop.  The  language  of  the  innkeeper's  wife  is 
very  realistically  reproduced:  "Die  Jungen  wachsen  'ran,  die  richt'gen 
Rangen,  mit  unserm  Willem  is  nichts  anzufangen:  Der  Jung'  is  faul, 
fiir  gar  nichts  hat  er  Sinn — ganz  wie  sein  Vater  drohmt  er  bloss  so  liin 
— und's  Rechnen  wird  ihm  alle  Tage  schwerer". 

Some  more  of  Fontane's  realism  in  language  and  subject  matter  is 
to  be  found  in  "Siegesbotschaft"2,  where  a  public  dance  is  described. 
"Oben,  auf  rotgestrichner  Empore,  sitzt  die  Musik  in  voUem  Chore f 
Klarinette,  Geigen,  Contrebass,  und  vor  jedem  ein  Pult  und  ein  Weiss- 
bierglas.  Und  unten  drehn  sich,  in  Schott'schem  und  Walzer,  die  Paare, 
dazwischen  ein  Juchzer,  ein  vSchnalzer,  und  Zug  und  Hitze  und  blak- 
ende  Lichter,  am  Fenster  neugierige  Kindergesichter,  ein  Rempeln  und 
Rennen,  ein  Stosscn  und  vStemmen,  und  mit  eins:  'Da  komnit  ja  der 
Neumann  aus  Cremmen,  der  Laatsche-Neumann. — Ich  wett',  er  bringt 
ein  Telegram". 

The  very  realistic  poem  "Hubert  in  Hof"3  should  also  be  discussed 
at  this  point.  It  tells  how  a  railroad  train  had  to  stop  at  a  small  station 
because  the  tracks  were  covered  with  snow.  The  small  railroad  depot 
with  its  disagreeable  odors  and  various  sights  is  most  vividly  described. 
Even  the  crusts  of  snow  that  cling  to  people's  boots,  break  off,  and  melt, 
are  brought  in. 

Among  the  other  poems  of  Fontane,  we  must  not  overlook  "Land 
Gosen"4,  which  reviews  the  surroundings  of  Berlin  and  their  products. 
"Unser  Friede"^  refers  to  stagnant  water  alive  with  insects  and  giving 
rise  to  pestilential  odors.  "Afrikareisender"6  criticizes  the  unsanitary 
conditions  in  a  big  city.  "Dolor  Tyrannus"^  mentions  opium,  morphine, 
cocaine,  chloral,  ether,  chloroform,  bromine,  iodine,  etc.  In  "Contenti 
estote"8  the  physician  inquires  about  migraine,  colic,  and  the  liver. 

Fontane  has  often  carried  his  realism  beyond  Europe,  and  speaks  of 
affairs  in  other  parts  of  the  world.  He  is  especially  hostile  toward  the 
combination  of  commercialism  and  Christianity  which  threatened   to 

ip.  64.     2p.  272.     3p.  326.     4p.  75.     5p.  299.     6p.  50.     7p.  42.     Sp.  55. 

56 


rule  the  world'.  His  poems  dealing  of  far  away  lands,  such  as  "Die  Bal- 
inesenfrauen  auf  Lombok"2  and  "Fire,  but  don't  hurt  the  flag"3  are 
absolutely  realistic  in  tenor,  and  entirely  different  from  the  totally  un- 
realistic exotic  poems  of  Freiligrath. 

The  most  realistic  nature  poems  of  Fontane  are  "Herbstmorgen"* 
and  "Spatherbst"5.  We  are  reminded  of  the  hypersensitiveness  of  An- 
nette von  Droste-Hulshoff  when  Fontane  writes  in  "Mittag''^:  "Und 
doch  es  klingt,  als  strom  ein  Regen  leis  tonend  auf  das  Blatterdach". 
An  episode  in  the  barn-yard  seems  to  have  inspired  "Der  Kranich"^. 

Ferdinand  von  Saar  is  of  a  different  temperament  than  Fontane. 
Fontane  portrays  the  middle  classes  or  the  higher  classes  in  a  big  city, 
his  trend  of  mind  is  humorous,  unprejudiced,  and  objective,  he  seems 
to  regard  life  with  good-natured  contempt.  Saar,  on  the  other  hand, 
often  leads  us  into  the  slums,  which  he  portrays  with  the  most  crass 
and  unsparing  realism  imaginable.  There  is  a  menacing  undertone  in 
some  of  his  poems  which  prophesy  a  social  revolution,  which  the  poet 
does  not  advocate,  but  which  he  seems  to  fear. 

Saar  shows  us  the  factories  in  which  the  laborers  work.  "Der  Ziegel 
schlag"8  takes  us  to  the  brick  factory  in  a  large  field  covered  with  yel- 
low mud  puddles;  high  chimneys  tower  above  the  wooden  sheds.  The 
dust,  heat,  mud,  the  pale  faces  of  the  laborers,  and  the  monotony  and 
drudgery  of  factory  work  are  mentioned.  "Arbeitergruss"^  deals  with 
the  sooty  faced  workman  of  the  foundry,  and  the  contempt  which  the 
physical  laborer  has  for  all  purely  mental  labor. 

We  are  then  led  into  the  slums.  The  delapidated  tenement  houses, 
overtowered  by  high  chimneys,  and  surrounded  by  the  smoke  and  foul 
atmosphere  of  the  factories,  half-naked  children,  anaemic  and  rachitic, 
stores  in  which  unappetizing  and  disgusting  food  is  kept  for  sale,  low 
saloons,  small  traders  in  dingy  and  damp  dwellings,  sickness  and  idle- 
ness, dull,  brutish  people,  and  women  with  hard,  but  nevertheless  lustful 
stares,  all  this  is  portrayed  by  Saar  in  "Proles" lo.  A  similar  poem  is  "Der 
neue  Vorort''^,  where  we  see  the  scrofulous,  rachitic,  and  anaemic  wo- 
men of  the  overcrowded  tenement  district.  The  adulterated  foods  sold 
to  the  poor  people  are  a  sign  of  the  scientific  advancement  of  the  age. 
The  children  are  taught  in  the  district  schools  by  hysterical  school  tea- 
chers.   The  poem  predicts  a  social  revolution.    The  latter  is  also  fore- 

i"Britannia  an  ihren  Sohn  John  Bull",  p.  80.  ^p.  72.  3p,  71.  4p.  5. 
5p.  28.  <5p,  12,  7p.  7.  8ed.  used  for  Saar:  Leipsic,  n.d.  Max  Hesse, 
"Der  Ziegelschlag",  p    36.     ^p.  no.     lOp.  145.     upart  II,  p.  26. 

57 


casted  in  "Nachtbild*'i  where  laborers  and  outcasts  gather  around  the 
street  lunch-stove,  where  unappetizing  things  are  sold.  The  glowing 
coal  in  the  stove  is  likened  to  the  spark  of  hatred  that  will  shortly  kindle 
the  great  revolution.  The  poem  "Das  letzte  Kind"2  is  perhaps  among 
the  crassest  poems  in  literature.  It  shows  us  the  woman  of  the  slums, 
who,  helpless  against  the  brutish  passions  of  her  drunken  husband,  de- 
livers herself  of  her  eighth  child  in  a  barn;  fortunately  she  manages  to 
bring  the  child  into  the  world  dead,  for  the  family  is  already  at  the  verge 
of  starvation.  "Kontraste"3,  contrasts  the  life  of  the  laboring  classes 
with  that  of  the  well-to-do.  The  workmen  must  work  in  noon-day 
heat  with  pick  and  shovel  in  order  to  mend  the  pavement,  while  the 
wealthy  have  left  town,  or  spend  their  time  in  aesthetic  enjoyment. 
The  work  and  noon-day  rest  of  the  workmen  are  described  most  realis- 
tically. vSocialistic  tendencies  are  also  strong  in  "Der  Eisenbahnzug"*, 
where  the  railroad  train  is  portrayed:  "Abgeteilt  nach  Wagenklassen, 
mude  von  der  Reise  Qual,  schau'n  die  Menschen  stumpf  gelassen  durch 
die  Fenster,  eng  und  schmal."  "Gesang  der  Armen  im  Winter" s  shows 
us  the  plight  of  the  poor  people  in  winter,  when  heavy  snows  have  im- 
peded the  work  of  erecting  houses,  and  when  only  a  little  money  can 
be  made  by  shoveling  snow.  "Das  Judenweib"*  portrays  the  Jewish 
woman  who  sells  matches,  cigar  holders,  note  books,  and  other  small 
merchandise  in  the  streets. 

Saar's  "Die  Entarteten"^  expresses  the  modern  theories  of  heredity 
and  degeneracy  in  poetry. 

Saar  seems  to  be  remarkably  aware  of  the  peculiarities  of  our  modern 
day.  "Drahtklange"8  refers  to  the  telegraph  wires  as  the  harp  which 
voices  the  joys  and  sorrows  of  humanity.  "An  eine  junge  Hollanderin"^ 
gives  us  an  extremely  realistic  picture  of  a  railroad  depot.  In  the  latter 
poem  we  hear  the  shrill  whistle  of  the  official,  loud  cries,  and  see  the 
doors  leading  to  the  trains  flung  open,  as  well  as  the  train  slowly  start- 
ing to  move  amidst  snorting  and  puffing.  He  sees  women  going  out  to 
work  in  offices  which  were  once  filled  by  men  onlyio,  and  in  "Fin  de 
siecle"!*  he  imagines  the  future  with  its  flying  machines  and  its  women 
who  have  lost  their  femininity. 

ip. 178.  2p. 138.  3p. 175.  4p.  144.  sp.  i63.  6p. 173.  7p. 177.  sp. 35. 
9p.  96.     io"Die  Post-Elevin",  p.  141.     "part  II,  p.  65. 

58 


It  is  only  occasionally  that  Saar  treats  of  the  higher  society i.  Much 
more  remarkable  are  his  descriptions  of  city  life  as  it  appears  on  the 
surface.  The  hot  and  noisy  streets  are  repeatedly  referred  to2,  "Lie- 
besszene"  was  inspired  by  a  young  couple  reading  a  torn  book  at  one 
of  the  tables  in  a  summer  garden.  "Stimmen  des  Tages"  tells  of  a 
sleepless  night  and  the  relief  afforded  by  the  arrival  of  the  day,  when 
sparrows  begin  to  chirp  and  heavy  vehicles  start  to  roll  by  on  the  street. 
"Stadtsommer"  more  especially  emphasizes  the  oppressive  heat  of  the 
summer  in  a  large  city.  "Vergessene  Liebe"^  very  realistically  describes 
the  market  place  at  the  dawn  of  day.  "Schlaftrunkne  Gaule  zogen 
hinter  sich  die  Karren  mit  Milch  und  mit  Gemiise  nach  dem  Markt, 
allwo  beim  Scheine  wandelnder  Laternen  die  Hokerweiber  ihre  Platze 
suchten",  and  "Mit  Wagen  kamen  schon  die  Bauern;  Schafe  blokten, 
Kiihe  briillten — "  may  serve  as  examples.  In  "Sonntag"*  the  poet  de- 
scribes his  Sunday  afternoons;  the  streets  are  deserted,  and  he  spends 
his  time  in  reading.  "Wie  lieb  ich  es,  an  Sonntagsnachmittagen  allein 
zu  sitzen  im  vertrauten  Zimmer".  The  sun  shines  shrough  the  window 
and  casts  a  golden  glow  over  his  book. 

Rural  life  is  only  rarely  pictured  by  Saar,  although  the  story  of  a 
runaway  cow  underlies  the  poem  "Die  Kuh"^,  and  "Das  junge  Weib"^ 
gives  us  a  realistic  description  of  a  peasant  woman  washing  a  pan  in  a 
village  street.  On  the  other  hand  there  is  a  great  deal  of  realistic  na- 
ture painting  in  Saar.  The  silent  and  oppressive  heat  of  summer^,  the 
dreary  sadness  of  autumn^,  when  one  can  walk  over  damp  and  barren 
fields,  where  the  feet  of  the  pedestrian  sink  deep  into  the  mud,  and  when 
the  noise  of  the  distant  ax  in  the  forest  creates  the  real  November  at- 
mosphere^,  a  winter  nightio,  the  pale  winter  sun  and  the  cruel  winter 
stormsii,  the  melting  of  the  snow  ("horbar  tropft  es  im  Kreis"i2),  and 
the  icy  winds  of  early  spring,  when  there  are  still  traces  of  snow  in 
shady  placesi3,  all  this  is  concretely  and  vividly  presented  to  us  by  Saar. 
"Auf  der  Lobau"!*  describes  the  river  quietly  flowing  past  shores  cov- 
ered with  brush;  alder  trees,  white  poplars,  and  the  cry  of  the  heron 

i"Wohtatigkeits-Redoute",  p.  164;  "Das  erwachende  Schloss",  p.  132. 
2"Stadtsommer",  p.  24;  "Stimmen  des  Tages",  p.  28;  "Liebesszene", 
p.  108.  3p.  101.  4p.  57.  5p.  130.  6p.  135.  7'Xied",  p.  20;  "Opfer- 
stunde",  p.  91.  8"Landschaft  im  Spatherbst",  p.  36.  9"Novemberlied", 
p.  115.  io"Winterabend",  p.  24.  ^Abschied  von  Kaltenleutgaben", 
part  II,  p.  21.     i2"Tauwetter",  p.  25.     i3"Die  Lerche",  p.  72.     i^p.  84. 

59 


give  atmosphere  to  the  landscape.  It  is  so  quiet  that  the  motion  of  the 
butterfly  and  the  breath  of  the  roe  are  almost  audible.  "Der  Trauer- 
mantel"!  describes  the  butterfly  in  the  garden:  "Einmal  noch  umkrei- 
sest  du  das  weite  Beet — dann,  hohen  Schwungs,  entflatterst  du  ins  nahe 
Dickicht,  wo  Fichtenzweige  hell  stammige  Birken  umdtistern". 

Aside  from  the  poems  of  the  slums,  the  big  city,  and  the  concrete,  re- 
alistic treatment  of  nature,  Saar  has  written  several  poems  which  re- 
flect upon  life  in  general  in  a  most  realistic  way.  It  has  been  pointed 
out  that  he  is  especially  successful  as-  a  realistic  portrayer  of  women2. 
Again  and  again  he  reflects  upon  the  tragedy  of  women  who  begin  to 
show  their  age^.  In  "Das  alte  Ehepaar"^  he  reflects  upon  an  old  couple 
who  have  learned  to  understand  and  appreciate  each  other  only  with 
the  approach  of  old  age.  In  "Amara"^  the  poet  is  shown  as  looking 
over  old  letters  and  a  faded  photograph ;  he  is  unable  to  understand  how 
he  could  once  fall  in  love  with  the  woman  whose  picture  he  has  before 
him.    This  poem  is  also  decidedly  realistic  in  tone. 

CONCLUSION 

To  sum  up  the  development  of  naturalism,  we  might  say  that  the 
early  folk-song  realism  made  its  appearance  in  German  poetry  shortly 
after  1770.  The  first  evidences  of  socialism  are  also  to  be  found  at  this 
time.  This  realism,  first  more  or  less  limited  to  rural  and  outdoor  life 
began  to  be  transferred  to  urban  and  indoor  life  after  1800.  At  the 
same  time  a  nev/  and  more  modern  note  was  sounded  by  several  poets, 
such  as  the  later  Goethe,  even  more  by  Brentano  and  Chamisso,  and 
especially  by  Heine ;  the  latter  poet  gives  the  most  pronounced  evidence 
of  the  break  with  romantic  idealism  and  of  the  blending  of  the  folk-song 
realism  with  the  modern  spirit,  although  much  of  the  Heinesque  spirit 
had  already  been  foreshadowed  by  Brentano  and  Chamisso. 

The  most  minute  analysis,  especially  of  nature,  is  to  be  found  in  the 
poetry  of  Annette  von-  Droste-Hiilshoff ;  Hebbel's  "Mutter  und  Kind" 
stands  out  as  one  of  the  earliest  attempts  to  picture  a  "milieu"  in  the 
slums  of  a  large  city;  Theodor  Storm  again  unites  most  of  the  natural- 
istic traits  found  in  German  poetry  before  his  time.  The  realistic  treat- 
ment of  Berlin  life  by  Fontane  and  the  treatment  of  the  slums  by  Saar 
already  bring  us  to  the  naturalistic  period  proper. 

ip.  72.  2see  Minor's  "Ferdinand  von  Saar":  Liepsic  and  Vienna,  1898. 
3"Clarisse",  p.  38;  "Ottilie",  p.  106;  "Die  alternde  Magd",  p.  140. 
4p.  136.     5p.  104. 

60 


We  may  now  turn  to  the  question  as  to  whether  we  are  justified  in 
considering  the  appearance  of  Liliencron's  "Adjutantenritte"  in  1884 
as  the  beginning  of  a  new  period  in  German  poetry.  It  is  generally 
accepted  that  the  appearance  of  a  great  and  original  personality  as  that 
of  Liliencron  had  dealt  a  death  blow  to  the  period  of  imitation  and  sen- 
timental idealism,  to  the  "Epigonenlyrik".  On  the  other  hand,  the 
naturalists  have  added  very  little,  if  anything,  in  regard  to  striking  in- 
novations as  to  subject  matter  or  even  expression.  But,  although  all 
naturalistic  details  are  to  be  found  before  1884,  the  naturalists  have 
been  more  consistently  and  more  exclusively  naturalistic  than  most  of 
the  poets  before  1884.  It  will  also  be  noted  that  the  most  naturalistic 
of  the  poems  of  Fontane  and  Saar  are  the  later  ones  which  have  been 
written  after  the  advent  of  the  naturalistic  period. 


61 


INDEX 

Anacreontic  Poetry,  1,  4,  9,  12,  15.  Freiligrath,  48. 

Anzengruber,  54.  Geographical  Knowledge,  7. 

Arndt,  E.  M.,  18.  Geological  Terms,  39. 

Arnim,  18,  19.  Gessner's  Idyls,  5. 

Arnold,  Mathew,  1.  Goethe,  11,  31. 

Astronomical  Knowledge,  27,  50.  Grisebach,  Eduard,  31,  53. 

Bdranger,  2,  23.  Groth,  Klaus,  42. 

Brentano,  19.  Griibel,  11,  17. 

Brockes,  6.  Griin,  A.,  36. 

Browning,  2.  Hain,  5,  14,  19. 

Burger,  9.  Haller,  7. 

Burns,  2.  Hauptmann's  "Before  Dawn",  10. 

Byron,  1.  Hebbel,  48. 

Chamisso,  23,  48.  Hebel,  11,  15,  42. 

Classical  French  Drama,  1.  Heine,  3,  20,  21,  23,  24,  27,  53. 

Claudius,  Mathias,  8,  11.  Herder,  4. 

Coleridge,  1.  Hermann  und  Dorothea,  15. 

Contemporary  Events  Treated,  10,  Holderlin,  2. 

18,  22,  24,  26,  32,  50,  51,  57.  Holty,  8. 

Conventional  Language  in  Mouth  Homer,  1,  4,  6,  10. 

of  Peasants,  8,  14,  25.  Individual  References,  3,  9,  11,  13, 

Corneille,  3.  31. 

Des  Knaben  Wunderhorn,  18.  Interiors  Portrayed,  13,  17,  21,  23, 

Dialect  Employed,  6,  15-17,  42-45.  26,  28,  36,  44,  46,  49,  52. 

Didactic  Tendencies,  7,  16.  Keats,  1. 

Dingelstedt,  P.,  34.  Keller,  50. 

Droste-Hiilshoff,  Annette  v.,  5,  35,  Kerner,  22,  24. 

37,  44,  45,  46,  48,^57,  60.  Kleist,  Ewald  v.,  7. 

Expression,  Freedom  of,  2,  8,  9,  13,  Lenau,  34. 

14,  28,  42,  48,  53.  Lenz,  10. 

Faust,  Goethe's,  12.  Liliencron,  3,  18. 

Folk-song,  1,  4,  8,  10,  12,  18,  21,  22,  MacPherson's  Ossian,  4,  10. 

25,  35,  52.  Miller,  J.  P.,  8. 

Fontane,  54.  Moli^re,  3. 

Foreign  Words,  7,  20,  28.  Miiller,  Wilhelm,  15,  25. 


Mythology  References  to,  4,  8.  Saar,  F.  v.,  54,  57. 

Nature,  35;  cruelty,  19,  35,  52;  dis-  Satire,  7,  23,  26,  31,  42,  51,  55. 

agreeable  aspects,  5,  13,  17,  21,  Schenkendorf,  17,  18. 

24,  34,  38,  51,  52,  54,  59;  minute  Schiller,  15,  31. 

treatment,  2,  6,  9,  11,  17,  22,  27,  Schubart.  9. 

37,  39,  43,  52;  personified,  16,  33;  Scientific  Spirit,  2,  37. 

odors  in  nature,  6,  17,  37,  40,  52;  Shelley,  1. 

sounds  in  nature,  5,  26,  37,  40,  Silesian  Schools,  4. 

44,  52,;  nature  sounds  imitated.  Social  Compassion,  3,  6,  9,  10,  19, 

38;  useful  in  nature,  6.  34,  42,  49,  51,  58. 

Novalis,  18.  Social  Revolution,  36,  50,  51,  57,  58. 

Peasants,  see  Rural  Life.  Storm,  T.,  52. 

Percy's  Reliques,  4,  10.  Swinburne,  2. 

Platen,  2.  Symbolists,  18,  21. 

Proletarians,  3,  5,  22,  23,  49,   51,  Tennyson,  1. 

57-58.  Theory  of  Naturalism,  9,  1 1,  21,  25, 
Prostitutes,  19,  31,  49,  53.  29. 

Railroad,  22,  34,  36,  48,  50,  53,  56,  Tieck,  18. 

58.  Trivial  Details,  5,  9,  14,  17,  25,  26, 
Renaissance,  3,  11.  30,  35,  45,  50. 

Repast  Described,  6,  33,  47.  Uhland,  15,  25. 

Roman  Elegies  of  Goethe,  12,  14.  Urban  Realism,  Beginnings  of,   7, 
Romanticism,  Break  With,  15,  22,  14,    16,    17,    20,    21,    23;    street 

29,  32,  34,  39,  52.  scenes,  20,  28,  40,  45,  49,  50,  54, 

Rosetti,  2.  55,  57,  58,  59. 

Rousseau,  3,  4-5,  10.  Verlaine,  23. 

Ruckert,  26,  35,  48.  Voss,  J.  H.,  5,  11,  12,  25. 

Rural  Life,  5,  6,  7,  8,  9,  10,  11,  16,  Wedekind,  20,  31. 

19,  36,  43,  44,  46,  49;  rural  par-  Wordsworth,  2,  36. 

son,  6,  40,  46;  rural  schoolmaster,  Xenien,  Zahme,  12. 

6. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY 

I,  Erwin  Herbert  Bohm,  was  born  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  November 
23,  1893.  I  received  my  secondary  school  education  at  the  Realgym- 
nasium  in  Weimar,  Germany;  my  undergraduate  education  at  Ohio 
State  University,  from  which  I  obtained  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts 
in  1914  and  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  in  1915.  The  year  1915-16 
was  spent  at  the  University  of  Wisconsin  as  Henry  Gund  Scholar  in 
German  Literature.  The  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy  was  conferred 
upon  me  by  Ohio  State  University  in  1917  after  a  one  year  residence  on 
a  University  Fellowship. 


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